Within Dreams
by Katkid
Summary: After their adventures in the Digiworld, the Digidestined are pitted against a new foe. One that defies every corner of imagination....
1. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

(A/N: This is yet another 01 fic, set after the Digiworld.I know, I know that's practically all I write, but I like writing those!)

Within Dreams--Chapter 1

Snow lightly drifted down from the heavens, powdering the ground with an increasing layer of white in Odaiba, Japan.Kari Kamiya watched the snow fluttering past the window in her bedroom happily.She loved the snow.Loved how quietly and gracefully it floated through the air.How it gradually changed the world from sad, dead browns to a glittering display of white sugar.How it made her thankful for the nice home her family lived in.Everything about snow made Kari happy.

Only one thing was making her enjoy the snow a little less than she normally would.That thing was the fact that her parents were not at home.They'd left early in the morning to visit their grandparents--about a forty-five minute drive--and were supposed to return sometime around five.Minutes ago, they had telephoned to tell their children that they would be staying at their grandparent's house for the night, as the snow was too deep to drive through until the roads were plowed.

Kari wasn't especially worried.She herself had spoken with her parents and both had assured her they would be on their way home as soon as the roads were plowed.Plus, she knew Tai wouldn't let anything happen to her.

As she took a sip of hot chocolate, her brother entered the room they shared and said: "geez, it's still coming down!"

"Yeah," Kari answered in a voice that was a half-sigh.She wished it would never stop, but at the same time wished it would end so her parents could get home.It was getting late.Already 10:00 and the snow showed no sign of letting up.There had to be at least one foot of snow outside by now.

The phone suddenly rang, making both children jump in surprise."That must be mom and dad," Tai muttered."I'll get it."He ran from the room, toward the phone and Kari followed.

But Tai's besocked feet proved a problem when he skidded past the telephone and fell flat on his back.Kari giggled and said: "guess you won't get it."

She picked up the receiver and held it to her ear as Tai got back to his feet.

"Hello, Kamiya residence."After a brief pause, Kari frowned ever so slightly and stated: "they're out at the moment.Would you like me to take a message?"Another pause, then: "OK, just a sec."She covered the mouthpiece and stated: "Tai, it's for you."

"Who is it?"

Kari shrugged and Tai took the phone from his sister.

"Hello?"

A low, cold voice answered: "is this Taichi Kamiya?"

Tai hesitated before answering.Nobody he knew used his full name.Not unless something serious was going on."Yes," he finally replied.

"Care for a test of strength?"

Again, Tai hesitated.The voice was definitely unfamiliar to him."What kind of test of strength?What do you mean?"

"Just answer the question," the voice harshly shot back.

"But--"

"Look, kid, in my business there are no 'buts.'There's yes and there's no.Now which is it?Yes or no?"

"What is 'your business?'Who're you?"

"Just answer the question, kid."

Tai was getting worried now.He considered hanging up, but the voice on the other end shouted: "don't you _dare_ hang up!Don't you _DARE!_"

He was struck with how forcefully the voice had insisted he didn't hang up.And he had no idea who it was that had called him.Come to think of it, it was way past the time a normal call would be coming.This was definitely something to be worried about.

"No.I don't want to take a test of strength," he stated.

The voice laughed on the other end, a dry raspy laugh that sent chills down his spine."Wrong answer, kid.Wrong answer."

And then there was a click.Then a dial tone.

"Who was it?" Kari inquired.

"I dunno.Some weirdo," Tai answered.He sat down on the heater.

That was when the flickered.Kari gasped, then sighed in relief when the lights returned.But the lights only remained for a moment before going out again, plunging the room into darkness.Now Kari was a bit frightened.She would never admit it aloud, but she was just a little afraid of the dark.

"Aw, crap," Tai muttered.

"What?"

"The heater's not working, either.It must've quit when the lights went out.Kari, can you get the flashlight?"

Kari nodded, then realized that Tai probably couldn't see her in the dark and said: "yeah.Just a minute."She opened one of the kitchen drawers and felt through it until she found a flashlight before clicking on the light.

No sooner had the light been turned on than a crash of breaking glass cut through the otherwise silent apartment.It had come from their bedroom.

Now Kari was no longer frightened.She was scared."Tai, what's happening?" she whispered.

"Wait here," Tai whispered back.He took the flashlight and very quietly left the room, heading for their bedroom.

Kari sat down on the kitchen floor and hugged her knees to her chest.She wished Tai would hurry up.She hated sitting alone in the dark.

"It's all right, Kari," she heard her brother shout from their room."Come on in."

Slowly, Kari got to her feet and felt her way down the hall and to their room.Upon entering the room she felt a sudden chill.That was when she noticed the window was open.No, not open._Broken.Light from the flashlight glinted off shards of glass and the floor near the window was getting increasingly wet from the snow that drifted inside, carried on a slight winter breeze._

"How did it break?" she demanded.

Tai aimed the flashlight beam at a medium-sized rock."Somebody must've thrown it through our window."

_"Taichi," Kari hissed, now truly terrified.__"How could anybody throw a rock through our window?"_

_ _

Tai's mouth opened in surprise._Kari was right…there was no way anybody could **possibly** through a rock that size through their window!They were on the fourteenth floor!_

"Hey, what's that?" Kari inquired, pointing to the rock.

"What?I don't see anything."

_"Look," Kari commanded."Can't you see it?"_

Tai squinted and noticed a dirty piece of string tied around the rock.It held a grimy piece of paper to the stone.He untied the knot and the note fell to the floor.

Kari picked up the note and read it aloud, eyes wide with fear."It starts tonight.Be ready," she read.

The two siblings looked at one another, confused.They got a clear warning.They should have listened….


	2. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

Within Dreams—Chapter 2

TK watched as Matt plunked the telephone back onto the receiver.He involuntarily shivered, more from the fact that the heat in the room was gradually dissipating and had been doing so for the past half hour.

It had started out a normal visit to his brother and father's apartment.Of course he was happy to be seeing his brother again; it had been nearly a month since the last time either had been allowed to visit the other.His father had left to go to work at the TV station soon after TK arrived and the two brothers were home alone ever since.

It was the middle of winter break, so neither of the boys thought it strange when the snow began falling that afternoon.But they began to worry when their father did not return home at his usual time.Matt supplied that maybe the snow was causing traffic that would delay him.An hour passed.Then two, and still no sign of their father.

That was when that phone call came.It was from their father and he said he would be unable to get home until the morning, when the streets would be plowed.He asked if everything was all right and Matt assured him everything was fine, that they would be OK.

But that was _before_ the lights went out.That was _before_ the heat stopped working.And that was _before _the phone went dead.

"You mean you can't call dad?" TK anxiously questioned.

Matt shook his head and replied: "it'll be fine, TK.Don't worry.I bet the lights'll be back on in the morning."He suddenly seemed to remember just how late it was and suggested: "let's go to sleep.It must be about eleven now."

TK yawned and agreed._It was already eleven? When had the lights gone out?_

"Matt, it's cold in here."

"I know, TK," Matt replied."I wish I could do something about that, but the heater's not working."

Matt shuddered, just now noticing how cold it was.He looked at the thermostat, aiming the thin beam of light from his flashlight at the small box on the wall and his eyes widened in surprise._How had it gotten to be twenty-eight degrees?_And the indicating needle was rapidly dropping.28…then 27…then 26, 25, 24….

He turned away from the box and saw TK now shivering uncontrollably."Just a sec, I'll get some of the extra blankets down, OK?"

TK nodded and sat down on the couch, huddled into a small ball to keep warm.

Matt pulled down several heavy blankets from the top shelf in his father's closet and walked out to the living room.Again, he glanced at the thermostat and this time his stomach dropped to the soles of his feet._It was down to only five degrees._

_There's got to be some mistake, _Matt thought, tapping the box with his free hand.But it was no mistake.And the numbers were steadily dropping.

He quickly walked out into the living room before spreading out the blankets over himself and his brother.It was so cold…_why did the heater have to stop working on a night like this? _He wondered._We might as well be sleeping outside.It can't be much colder than in here._

A shrill ring from the telephone broke Matt out of his thoughts and made him jump in surprise.Beside him, he felt TK also jump in surprise.

"I thought you said the phone was dead," TK whispered, fear apparent in his voice and eyes wide with unspoken terror.

"They were.Maybe…maybe it's dad," Matt haltingly answered._Yeah, that's it…It's dad, _he decided."I'll be right back, OK?"

Matt got to his feet and took one of the blankets with him.Even through the heavy woven fabric, the bitingly cold air sent a shiver down his spine and made goose bumps appear on his skin.

"Hello?" 

Matt listened, but heard nothing on the other line."Hello?" he repeated.But there was nothing.He shook his head and hung up the phone, brow furrowed in confusion.The line had certainly sounded dead and yet the phone had distinctly rang seconds earlier.

No sooner had he hung up the phone than it rang again.He stood beside the jangling telephone, hesitant to pick up.It rang a second time and then a third insistent ring.Finally, after the fourth ring, Matt snatched the phone off the receiver.

"Hello?"

This time there was faint static that sent a chill through his body.Then again, the chill could have been caused by the freezing cold of the room as well.

"H-hello?"

There was no answer, save the static.

He took a deep breath and hung up the phone.Then he picked it up.No static.No dial tone.Nothing.The phone was definitely still dead.He hung the phone up and walked back to the couch.

Once he sat down, the phone rang once again.He made no move to answer it.

"Aren't you going to get it?" TK sleepily queried.

"No."

"Well, why not?"

Matt did not reply.He realized how stupid it would sound if he said he was afraid of static.So he walked back to the phone and picked up.

"Hello?"

A voice that was void of emotion said: "once you go to sleep it'll begin…yes, it will be begin…are you ready?"

Now Matt was scared.He quickly slammed the phone onto the receiver, and then picked it back up._Silence.The line was dead._He walked back to the couch and sat down, this time leaving the phone off the hook.

"Who was it, Matt?"

"It was a—a—telemarketer," Matt lied.He yawned.It had to be almost midnight by now."Let's go to sleep."

TK nodded and closed his eyes and Matt got under the covers before closing his eyes as well….


	3. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

Within Dreams--Chapter 3

A blast of icy cold wind that seemed to slap against Izzy Izumi's face gave the boy a rude awakening out of a sound sleep.

If the wind wasn't enough to startle Izzy, the realization that he was no longer in his bed was.He was so surprised he could do little more than look about him in astonishment as reality sank in.At first he'd thought he was outside, as the blast of wind had been so cold and snow was filtering down from the sky.But upon looking around, he found that that was not entirely the case.Not only was no longer in his bed; he was no longer in Odaiba.Heck, he wasn't even in _Japan _anymore as far as he could tell!

He appeared to be on a ship--a luxury cruise liner judging by the looks of things--and the ship was at a standstill.It was bitterly cold, so unlike the bed he had gone to sleep in what seemed like only seconds ago.To his right was a door that led to what he assumed to be the staterooms and to his left was a railing.

Izzy got to his feet and walked over to the railing, shivering, as the cold seemed to penetrate through him.The railing was so cold it actually had icicles hanging from it and he stayed a few feet away from the sharply pointed bits of ice.Upon looking over the edge, Izzy saw why they were not moving.The water itself was like slush, thick and whitish.It almost had a gelatinous quality to it.

_This can't be where I think it is, _Izzy dazedly thought._That is totally impossible._

But it certainly seemed as though he was in the Arctic Ocean.The freezing cold air, the half-frozen water, the occasional pocket of snow…it all pointed toward either an extreme northern or southern area of the world.

"I'm dreaming," he said aloud."I'm dreaming.This is all some ridiculous dream and I'll wake up warm in bed and laugh at this any second now."

He waited, but nothing happened."It's got to be a dream,"he thought aloud."It must be!"

"Well…if this is a dream then I must be dreaming it, too," a familiar voice said.

Izzy had come to know the voice quite well over the course of his adventures in the Digiworld.It was Mimi.

"Mimi?You're here, too?" 

The pink-loving girl came out of her hiding place from behind the door earlier mentioned and replied: "yeah.And most of the others are, too.Well, everyone except Joe.When did you get here?"

"I--I'm not sure.Just now, I think.The last thing I remember is going to sleep at home."

Mimi sighed and answered: "that's the same thing for all of us, too.Come inside.It's freezing out here."

Izzy followed Mimi inside, down a short hall and into a small one-room living quarter.As the girl had said, all of his friends were there, except Joe.

"So does anybody have any idea where we could be?" Tai was saying.

There was a brief pause until Izzy broke the silence with: "I believe we are either in the Arctic Circle or the Antarctic Circle.We would have to be very far north or very far south for the water to be cold enough to start converting into slush."

"Well, that probably leaves us all with this nice little question: how in heaven's name did we get onto a ship and get here?" Sora questioned."And what happened to Joe, come to think of it?"

Izzy shrugged and answered: "I have no idea _how _this came about.All I know is _where _wemost likely _are_."

The words had barely left his mouth than a metallic clank sounded directly outside their room, out in the hallway.

"What was that?" TK whispered.

Nobody was in a hurry to supply what could be outside their door and nobody was in a hurry to find out.

Realization suddenly hit Izzy and he muttered: "I believe I have had an epiphany."

The other six occupants of the room slowly edged away from Izzy, eying him as though he was about to explode.

"A _what?" _Mimi said.

"Epiphany!" Izzy shouted."You know, where you figure something out all of a sudden?Geez, you guys have sick minds!"

His friends quickly came back to his side and Matt prompted: "OK, Izzy, tell us about this…" (he held back a laugh) "epiphany."

"I think we're inside a convergent dream."

"Oh that makes me feel so much better," Tai sarcastically replied."Hey wait a minute…it _does make me feel better!If this is a dream then nothing can hurt us, right?"_

Mimi added: "yeah, if this is just a dream then everything'll be fine!"

"Hey, that means we can do anything we want!" TK enthusiastically chimed in.

"Yeah!" Sora agreed.

Matt shook his head and stated: "sorry to burst your bubbles, but I don't think that's the case."

"But if this is a dream nothing can cause bodily harm to us," Tai responded."And Izzy said it's a dream." 

"He's right," Izzy said.

"But you said--" Kari began.

Izzy held up his hand for silence and he explained: "convergent dreams aren't like regular dreams."

"You get hurt here, you get hurt in real life, too," Matt added.

Another metallic crash outside the door prompted Sora to whisper: "then I suggest we start running."

"Run _where?_There's nowhere to run _to!" _Kari hissed.

Kari made no understatement.The room they were in was small and had no doors, save the one that led back out to the hallway.

"If there's something out there, I'll check it out," Tai muttered, walking toward the door."For all we know it could be…I dunno…a mouse."

Another loud metallic clank and Mimi whispered: "when was the last time you heard a mouse do that?"

Before another move could be made, the door was thrown off its hinges with a loud snap of bolts breaking apart.A single writhing tentacle entered the room.It probed through the room until it brushed against Kari's leg.

Kari whimpered in fear and Izzy whispered: "_don't move."_

_ _

The tentacle slowly trailed up Kari's legs, past her hips and up to her shoulder.The whole while she stood, stiff with terror.And then to her horror, the tentacle slid around her face and wrapped around her head.

_"Kari," Tai whispered, starting towards his sister._

Kari couldn't answer.The tentacle was over her mouth and it was dragging her forward, out the door.She felt Tai grab her hand and try to help her, but he was doing little good.

"Kari, help me," Tai grunted as he pulled her away from the door.

Kari was trying her best to resist the pull of the ugly thing that had wrapped around her head, but she could do nothing.

And then Tai's hand slipped from hers and she disappeared from the room.

"Kari!" Tai shouted after her and ran out of the room, hoping to maybe save his sister.

In unspoken agreement, the other five children ran from the room after Tai and Kari.They reached the door just in time to hear Kari scream as she was pulled off the ship and into the icy water and Tai shout in pain.

~*~

Mr. and Mrs. Kamiya unlocked the door to their apartment, happy to finally be home.The trip home from Mrs. Kamiya's parent's home had been a nightmare--two and a half hours of blaring car horns and bumper-to-bumper traffic.Both of the Kamiya's had been worried for their children, as the unexpected power outage had put out every light in Odaiba, plus it had shut down heating as well, making the entire district an ice cube.

Once inside, Mrs. Kamiya whispered: "honey, I'm going to check on the kids, OK?"

Mr. Kamiya nodded and his wife walked down the hall, toward the room her children shared.

_It's very cold in here, she thought as she opened the door.__I do hope they're all right.She tiptoed across the room being careful not to wake them.__Still sleeping, she thought, smiling lovingly._

But when she got to the bunk bed, the smile was thrown from her face.Kari was pale--far too pale--and her lips were tinged blue.Her chest was not rising and falling as was normal.In fact, it appeared breathing had stopped altogether.

"Oh God no," Mrs. Kamiya muttered as she looked at her daughter.She cradled her daughter's head in her arms and whispered: "Kari, it's mom.Please, please wake up" her voice rising with barely suppressed tears and crescendoing until she shouted: "Hikari, open your eyes!" But Kari did not open her eyes.

"Call an ambulance!Now!" Mrs. Kamiya shouted.

Mr. Kamiya rushed into the room, alarmed at what was happening and inquired: "what?What's going on?What's happening?"

"Just go!Do it now!"

Mrs. Kamiya watched as her husband left the room and stroked her daughter's waxen forehead gently."Hikari, i-it's going to be OK.Just hang on, please."

That was when Mrs. Kamiya realized that the noise she had been waking should have woken Tai._Not even he could sleep through all that, she thought._

Quickly, she dropped down to her knees to see if her son was all right--and her breath caught in her throat.It was obvious he was _not fine.His usually large hair was matted down to his head with sweat.He was convulsing, as though having a seizure and he was lying in what appeared to be a puddle of blood.His breaths were coming in short gasps._

"Taichi!" she cried, grabbing him by the shoulders to try and steady his uncontrollable shaking.

Mrs. Kamiya laid her hand on her son's forehead gently, and then snatched it away as though it had been burned--which was very nearly what had happened.He had a frighteningly high fever.As she watched, he moaned, a dull, toneless sound from deep in his throat.

_What happened?They--they were OK when I talked to them a few hours ago!Why is this happening?WHY?_


	4. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

Within Dreams—Chapter 4

Joe Kido removed his glasses from his face and massaged his aching eyes tenderly.He didn't need a mirror to know his eyes were red.

At this realization, he smiled wryly and thought: _eight hours of straight reading generally does that._He yawned heavily and decided: _I've got to do away with these overnight cram sessions._Nearly every night it was the same: fake sleeping for about an hour--until he was sure his parents and Jim were all sound asleep—then it would be time to study.All night.

He didn't really need to study all that much--he was already doing well in all his classes—it was more something productive for him to do in the hours before dawn.He was never really tired when he went to bed at night and he figured instead of lying in bed doing nothing he could try and get a little ahead in his classes.So night after night he'd read in a different textbook by the light of a small flashlight.

Truth be told, he somewhat enjoyed the quiet and stillness of the night.It was practically the only time he could be totally sure to do something without being interrupted.The only problem with his nightly routine was the fact that he had to stay awake through the day.He didn't want his family to figure out that he was spending his evenings working instead of sleeping and the only way to deter any suspicions was to remain awake through the day.

Every few days he would finally fall asleep in bed, but for the most part he was very much awake through the long hours of the night.

The first rays of morning sunlight were filtering through his blinds, turning the coloring of the room from an inky black to an increasingly light shade of gray._Mom and dad'll be up pretty soon, _he thought._They'll be glad to know the lights and heat are back._Again, the smile crept onto his face._Kinda pathetic.I was awake when the lights were fixed at 3 a.m.I wonder what time it is now?_

He stole a glance at his bedside alarm clock, and saw that it was 7:05 and decided it would be safe to leave his room in another hour or so.He had to keep the act up that he was sleeping at night if he didn't want to get caught and it _was_ winter break, after all.

_Yeah…I'll "get up" in about an hour.No use in waiting for Jim to get up.He practically sleeps until noon._

~*~

_Cold, so cold…intense cold was running through her, penetrating Kari's very being.But it was from far away, so very far away.It was weird.She knew she should be afraid or be worried about how cold she felt, but it felt like when you're at the dentist's office and you get a shot of Novocain._

_ _

_Kari felt detached from her body and vaguely noticed she wasn't breathing.But the realization didn't scare her.She didn't **need** to breathe here…wherever she was…._

_ _

_She seemed to be floating, but she wasn't entirely sure where she was.But she didn't worry about it; she didn't even care.Not even when a blinding light shone into her eyes.It was pretty, the light.Very pretty.And warm.So warm._

_ _

_Kari felt herself being pulled into the light and felt only peace.Only blissful, comforting peace._

_ _

_And she was being pulled away from the light.It was dimming, going away._

_ _

_"Wait!" she whispered."Wait.Come back…."_

_ _

_But the light left and the cold returned, the completely unbearable cold.Feeling was returning to her body and then she felt as if she was choking…._

_ _

_ _

~*~

Reawatched as the young, brown-haired girl's eyes flew open.Watched as she coughed violently and vomited water.Watched as she groaned and rubbed her eyes.

"Hello," she stated, nonchalantly flipping her long, sea green hair behind her shoulder.

The small girl gasped through her violent coughing, but was too weak to move.All she could do was look at Rea, surprise evident in her eyes.

The girl made no move to speak when she finished coughing, so Rea asked: "so what happened to you?"

The girl shrugged and whispered: "I got pulled off a boat.Who're you?"

"Oh, I'm Rea.And what's your name?"

"Hikari Kamiya," the girl replied."But you can call me Kari."

Rea blinked her large, sapphire-blue eyes and repeated: "Kari…that's a pretty name."

"You saved me," Kari stated."Thank you."

Rea shrugged and answered: "no problem.You know, it's not every day I see real people running around in here."

"I'm sorry.I don't think I follow you.What do you mean 'real people?'"

"Don't you know you're in a dream?Don't you know that I don't really exist?" Rea incredulously asked.

Kari furrowed her brow and muttered: "so it's true.Izzy was right."

"Excuse me?Izzy?Who is this 'Izzy?'What was he right about?"

"Oh.His name is actually Koushiro, but everybody calls him Izzy.He's one of my friends.He thought we might be in a convergent dream."

"A convergent dream?Oh dear," Rea muttered."Do you know if you're the only one that has been hurt?"

"I—I'm not sure," Kari replied."Why?"

Rea quickly explained: "I'm sure Izzy knew that whatever happened to you in a convergent dream affected your actual body as well.Did he tell you anything else about a convergent dream?"

"No, he didn't get the chance to.That was when I got pulled off the ship."

"Oh.Well I suppose that means you don't know the other important thing about convergent dreams.See, if you get hurt, not only does it affect your true body; the effects don't heal as they do in the dream.Your body continues to experience the injury until the damage is repaired in actuality as well."

Kari's face paled and she breathed: "so that means that means that even though I'm no longer drowning here I still might be in real life?"

Rea grimly replied: "there is no might in that statement.In real life you _are_ most likely still drowning.How many other people are in this dream with you and Izzy?"

"Five.My brother Tai, and my friends Sora, Mimi, TK and Matt—and another might be coming, too.His name is Joe."She paused and added: "speaking of my friends, do you think you could help me find them?"

Rea bit her lip and answered: "I'm not sure.This world you are in—it's not like the one you came from.It's unstable and subject to extreme sudden change."

"What kind of change?"

"I'm afraid your friends locations could be anywhere in this entire universe.It will be difficult if not impossible to find them.But we can try."

Rea and Kari set off to find Kari's friends and brother….

~*~

Mrs. Kamiya sat between her two children in their hospital beds, no tears falling from her eyes.There was nothing left in her to cry.

Kari's lungs had had fluid in them.It had been drained away and now a tube was down her throat, helping her to breathe.The only thing that appeared as an improvement in her condition was the way her chest now rose and fell steadily, thanks to the air that was pumped into her lungs.The doctors said it appeared as though she had nearly drowned.

Tai had stopped thrashing once he was put into his bed.Now he just lay there, perfectly still, an IV line steadily dripping antivenin into him.The doctors said he appeared to be poisoned.But something was strange about the poison—it was foreign to every type of known toxin.The only reason they had been able to issue any type of treatment at all was the fact the poison was extremely similar to that of a coral snake.Similar enough, thankfully to be treated with the same antivenin.But there was no guarantee it would work.

Mrs. Kamiya put her face in her hands thinking: _how could this have happened?And **why**?_


	5. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

Within Dreams--Chapter 5

"All right, Izzy.Since you seem to know more about this thing than the rest of us, would you mind telling us all…what the _hell_ just happened?" Matt demanded."I might have read a little about convergent dreams, but nothing I ever heard explains _that!"_

The happening Matt referred to was a sudden, and utterly surprising change of scene.One instant they had all been on the ship, running toward the sound of Tai and Kari's screams, the next they were inside an extremely old and very abandoned apartment building.It had happened in the blink of an eye.

Izzy shrugged and offered: "dreams aren't exactly something that can be researched and broken down.Illogical things are very likely to become logical.And I am assuming that this environment is not totally stable.So there you have it."

"What do you mean 'not totally stable?'" Sora inquired.

"Well…take for example the abrupt change of surroundings.It was totally spontaneous and unpredictable.A stable environment generally tends to change very slowly.It does not suddenly change from a ship in the middle of an ocean to some worn-down apartment building."

"What happened to Kari and Tai?" TK wondered aloud.

"I don't know," Izzy answered."I've never really been trapped in a dream before.Obviously, they have been separated from the group.And regarding their condition, I really can't say what condition they are in at the present."

Mimi furrowed her brow and questioned: "where's Joe?He should've showed up on the ship with us, right?"

"I think I can answer that one," Matt broke in."He might not have gone to sleep yet."

Izzy added: "that's one solution.Or maybe he's here, just not with us.Or maybe he's just lucky.There are an infinite amount of possibilities."

"Wait a minute!" Sora cried out."What if Joe _was_ awake?What if he woke us all up?Would this all end?"

Matt shook his head and replied: "it's easier than that.He'd only have to wake one of us up.The minute one of us woke up, the rest of us would, too.Well, if they're physically able to, anyway."

"But that's all based on the idea that Joe is awake!There is no way any of us can know for sure this is the case and even if he was, how would he know to wake one of us up?" Izzy argued.

"Good point," Mimi muttered."So when are we going to wake up normally if nobody else can wake us up?It's got to be later than we normally get up."

Matt was now zoned out of the conversation and he hadn't heard Mimi's question.He was remembering the strange phone call he'd received, wondering just _who _had made the call.They had seemed to know about what was going to happen when they all fell asleep.But who _were_ they?

~*~

Tai felt like a truck had hit him.He ached all over, his stomach was churning like crazy and he was so weak he could barely even blink his eyes, let alone stand up.

He was dimly aware of the fact that he was separated from the others but was too exhausted to care.It took him a moment for the fact to register in his mind that he'd been unconscious and he vaguely wondered how long he'd been in that state.

The events on the ship were very slowly returning to him, but they were scrambled and disjointed, like a movie without sound or plot._Kari was in the water…Izzy was talking about something, but what he couldn't remember…the tentacle was dragging Kari out of the room…a sudden pain as something slashed across his back…metallic clanks…cold water…lurching ship…._

He closed his eyes tightly and breathed deeply, wanting badly to roll onto his stomach and stay there until he felt better.But he was too weak to do even that.And his stomach was still churning, making him feel like he was about to be sick at any moment.

_What happened to Kari? _His fevered brain wondered.The last thing he could remember of her was…the tentacle dragging her out of the room.No…there was more.The tentacle…it dragged her down the hall and off the ship.

Tai struggled, trying desperately to move any part of his body--arms, legs, even fingers--but could only manage to raise his head an inch off the ground before his arms gave way.His muscles felt like they were burning and now his head was beginning to hurt.

The headache began to increase until it developed into a migraine so painful it felt like somebody had grabbed both his eyes from behind and tried to yank them out the back of his skull.He opened his mouth in a silent scream and shivered uncontrollably.

The pain was beginning to make him lightheaded.He heard footsteps approaching him, but they sounded so far away…so very far away….Too exhausted to keep his eyes open any longer, he relaxed and allowed the darkness to take him away, back into the blessed, painless unconsciousness….

~*~

"Rea, why am I here?" Kari inquired as they searched for her friends and brother.

Rea shrugged and responded: "I don't know.Convergent dreams are funny things.They happen for no reason at all."

Kari furrowed her brow, remembering the note that had been thrown through the window of her bedroom._It starts tonight.Be ready._It seemed _somebody _had known that this was going to happen.

"I think I'm here for a reason."

"What makes you think that?"

"Well…a rock got thrown through the window in the room my brother and I share," Kari began.

"How does that make you think you're here for a reason?" Rea inquired, thoroughly confused.

"Well…a note was tied to the rock.It said, "it starts tonight.Be ready."But who could've known about this?"

Rea stopped in her tracks and cursed under her breath.Kari looked at her newfound friend, confused at what could have shaken her so much.

"What's wrong?"

Rea muttered: "I knew he was planning on doing this, but I didn't think he could actually pull it off."She cursed again.

"What?Who?"

"Malign."

"What--"

Rea sighed and quickly said: "look, he's the reason you're here.It's his fault and he planned it."

"What are you talking about?"

"The less you know right now the better.We've got to find your other friends _now._"

Kari opened her mouth to ask another question, but Rea was now running at an incredible pace while carrying her.Certainly too fast to worry about answering questions.

_I guess I'll find out about Malign later, _Kari decided.

~*~

_Time sure passes slowly when you're alone, _Joe thought, watching as the clock beside his bed ticked, the second hand moving jerkily clockwise.It had only been three minutes since the last time he'd checked the clock and he could hear his parents walking about down the hall, awake.

_Maybe I'll "wake up" a half hour earlier.I'm getting a little bored waiting here and I'm sort of hungry, _he decided.

His newly acquired cell phone suddenly beeped, loudly shattering the silence in the room.It startled Joe and made him jump in his surprise.

Quickly, he hit the talk button on the cell phone to silence the noise and to keep his parents from coming into the room.

"Hello?" he half-whispered._Who would call me at 7:08 in the morning?_ He wondered.

"You Jyou Kido?" a gruff voice said.

Joe furrowed his brow and said: "yes.And may I ask who is speaking?"

"Name's not important.You stayed up all night."

Now Joe was getting a little afraid._How could anybody know about that?_This voice was unfamiliar and had a slightly sinister tone to it.

"Y-yes," he replied.

"That's not good for your health, boy. I advise you go to sleep before I am forced to put your lights out for you.Permanently."

Now Joe was scared."What do you mean?" 

"You'd better go to sleep if you want to help your friends, you'd better go to sleep so it can continue correctly and you'd better go to sleep before I _make _you go to sleep," the voice darkly replied.

The cell phone slipped from his hand and clunked loudly on the floor.Quickly, he picked it back up and queried: "is that a threat?"

"Let me put this bluntly: you don't take me seriously, I'll kill you.You stay awake, I'll kill you.And you tell anybody about me and I'll kill you real slow."

Joe took a deep breath and turned the cell phone off._Now what do I do? _He thought to himself._If I actually go to sleep, he'll probably kill me in my sleep.But if I stay awake he'll kill me, too.And I can't tell anyone about him because he'll kill me then too.What can I do?_


	6. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

Within Dreams—Chapter 6

A large white candle burned, wax dripping down the edges and firmly cementing it in place in its unusual holder—a skull.The skull was very old; it had yellowed slightly and some of the teeth were missing.It also had a large hole drilled neatly into the top to accommodate the candle it held.The candle and skull stuck out of earthy wall behind them.Every few feet there would be another of these candle and skull torches in the wall of the tunnel they were in.

After the long, twisting tunnel was a huge cavern, lit by hundreds more of the skull and candle torches.But they were only mere pinpricks of light in the enormity of the cavern.Twin chandeliers that hung from the ceiling generated most of the light.But there weren't just any chandeliers.They were made entirely of bones that held thousands of tiny, glimmering candles.

And in the middle of it all was a throne, also constructed of bones.But the throne wasn't what was important about the room; who—or _what—_was sitting in the throne, however, was.It was humanoid in shape, but the dimness of the cavern obscured facial and body features, making it difficult to tell exactly what it looked like.The black cloak they wore, making them difficult to see in the poorly lighted room, further distorted the physical appearance of whoever was sitting in the throne.It was Malign.

"Vitriol!" he shouted, his scratchy voice echoed through the cavern."Vitriol!"

There was the sound of footsteps echoing rapidly as somebody approached the cavern.Seconds later, a tall young woman that could have been in her late teens or early twenties raced into the room.She looked out of place in the grimness of the cavern, as she wore a bright purple cloak, much like the one that Malign wore.Her curly, dark brown hair framed her pale face nicely and her eyes stood out on her face, as they were a bright, sapphire blue.

"You called, master?" she questioned.She did not bother to kneel down, as she would sooner suffer the punishment of a sound beating than suffer the indignity of dirtying herself on the ground.Plus, she knew Malign would not harm her; she was powerful—nearly as powerful as Malign himself—and perfectly capable of harming him.

Malign distastefully eyed his best fighter, annoyed by the defiant glint in her eyes and the outright refusal to kneel as she had been told to do countless times before saying: "I have finally succeeded in bringing humans to our world, Vitriol."

"I wouldn't say it was done entirely by your hand," Vitriol replied.Then added as an afterthought: "sir."

Malign was beginning to get very annoyed by the unruliness of Vitriol."Act that way toward me again and you may not like the results of your rash actions."

Vitriol rolled her eyes, but said nothing as Malign continued: "now that _I_ know it is possible to bring people to this realm by sleep, it shall be a simple matter of transporting them all here, where they are helpless to _my_ power and where I will most surely rule."

The way Malign accented "I" and "my" was enough to make Vitriol want to scream.She took a deep breath and said: "as I said before, it wasn't entirely _your power."_

Now Malign had had enough."I gave you your warning, Vitriol, which is far more than I give to those lower than you and you decided not to take me seriously.Now you shall suffer the consequences."

Vitriol backed away.She suddenly realized she had been arrogant.Far too arrogant for her own good.Of course she was powerful, but there was no way she would be able to defend herself from Malign's power.

She was stopped in her tracks when Malign balled his hand into a fist and raised it high into the air.Vitriol was also raised up into the air, arms pinned to her sides.Then Malign opened his fist and Vitriol was sent crashing back down to the ground.This was repeated several times, both side of the punishment gravely silent.

When it finally stopped, Malign said: "now that I have your attention, I shall go over the plan.That is, unless you have any further objections."

Vitriol vigorously shook her head and Malign continued: "now, all is going according to plan, except one of the children has found Rea."Vitriol flinched at the sound of Rea's name, but said nothing."You cannot let Rea be an asset to them.Eliminate her."

"But master—" Vitriol protested, wishing she had never even heard of Rea before this moment.

Malign waved his hand, motioning her to be silent and said: "now go.Eliminate Rea and keep the possibility of an empire alive.Can you imagine how humiliating it would be to be defeated by a bunch of kids?We must take every precaution and be sure to keep the children in line."

Vitriol turned and ran from the cavern, wishing above everything she had no family._How am I going to kill my own sister? She wondered._

~*~

Nocuous smiled smugly.He was going to go down in history as the first person that lived in the dream world to enter the real world.Not only that, he was going to go down as the first person from the dream world to kill somebody from the real world.

His hunt: a twelve-year old boy.Blue hair.Glasses.Name: Jyou Kido.He couldn't believe the boy hadn't thought to look in his closet when seeing if his room was safe after receiving the telephone call from him.

_It shall be his downfall, _he thought, fingering the knife he held in his hand tenderly.Very slowly and deliberately, he pushed the door of the closet back, lunged at the bed and slashed with his knife.Mattress foam exploded everywhere—but the boy was gone!

Nocuous cursed when he noticed the open window._Kid's smarter than he looks, _he thought._Climbed down the fire escape.__I'll still find him._With those thoughts, Nocuous jumped from the sixth story window, landed easily on his feet and ran down the road after his quarry….

~*~

Mimi stiffened, startled by a sudden noise."What was that?" she whispered.

"What?I didn't hear anything," Izzy answered.

"_Listen," _Mimi hissed.

Izzy strained his ears and heard the smallest shuffling noise—like somebody dragging their feet.

"I hear it," TK whimpered, a little frightened.

"Hear what?" Sora asked, joining in on the conversation.

Matt answered: "that shuffling noise.It's heading toward us."

"What can we do?" Mimi whispered.She was trembling ever so slightly, frightened at the possibilities of what could be making the noise.

"Well, I'll tell you what I'm _not going to do," Matt muttered."I'm __not going to sit in here totally helpless and wait for whatever's out there to come get us."He picked up the best weapon he could find—a cinder block—and left the room._

"Matt!" TK whispered after him, but his older brother was already gone.

There was a tense silence, then Matt's voice came to them: "you guys are never going to believe this!"

Izzy, Mimi, Sora and TK ran into the deserted hallway and stopped abruptly when they saw the young woman with sea green hair and sapphire eyes.She was holding Kari in her arms.

"This is Rea," Kari explained."She helped me find you guys.And she knows why we're here…."


	7. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

Within Dreams—Chapter 7

Joe sat atop the roof of his apartment building and let out a quiet sigh of relief.Only moments ago, he had watched the burly man leaped out of his open window and down to the street below.He had noticed with a feeling of intense dread that the man was carrying a very large and certainly dangerous-looking knife and thanked his lucky stars when he didn't think to look up.

_There was **definitely** something weird about that man.A normal person doesn't jump out of a sixth-story window then run off like nothing happened, _he thought._And what was the meaning of the phone call?Why is it so important that I go to sleep?_

_ _

He ran the conversation through his head again, remembering how insistent the voice had sounded when advising him to go off to dreamland, threatening to put his lights out permanently.Joe had a pretty good idea what was mean by this and he didn't want to find out if he was right.

And the next thing the voice had said was definitely the most puzzling: _"you'd better go to sleep if you want to help your friends, you'd better go to sleep so it can continue correctly…."_

He went over the possibilities in his mind._Were his friends in danger?_If that was the case, he should warn them.He should go to them._No.That would be dangerous.What if somebody was waiting for him to do just that?_How could going to sleep help his friends if they were indeed in danger?It seemed to him he should do quite the opposite._And what had the person meant by "you'd better go to sleep so it can continue correctly?"_It made absolutely no sense to him.

He decided he would call his friends, not only to advise them to be careful, but to reassure himself that nothing was going on at the moment.Unfortunately, he'd left his cell phone in his room and he was wary of returning there; what if there had been more than one person after him?But an insistent voice in the back of his mind was screaming: _call them!Tell them what's going on!They need to know!_

After a brief debate, he decided he would return to his room, but bring the cell phone back up to the roof with him in case the man came back while he was making his calls.

Very slowly, he walked to the edge of the roof and looked down to the street far below.His stomach turned—_it was a long drop.A very, very long drop._But the man was nowhere in sight, which meant for the moment it would be safe to return to his room.

Joe climbed down the fire escape quickly, not daring to look back down at the street below and was in his room in a matter of seconds.He found the small, compact phone near his bed and was glad to see it had escaped harm.His bed however was destroyed.Mattress foam and cotton littered the sheets and floor around the bed and springs from the mattress stuck out helter-skelter all over the bed.

He tore his gaze away from the ransacked bed and walked to the window.But the idea of taking a cell phone up to the roof presented a problem: while carrying the cell phone, Joe would have to climb up the fire escape ladder with one hand.He definitely wasn't going to do that, as the chances of his falling were very good.

That was when he realized he was still in his pajamas.Quickly, he changed into his favorite outfit: a white shirt with a vest over it and cargo shorts with red sneakers.Now his problem was solved: he could simply put the cell phone in one of the pockets of his shorts.

He did so and was soon back up on the roof.He looked around as he punched in Tai and Kari's phone number, half expecting to see the huge, hulking man lunging for him.But the man was quickly forgotten when the telephone rang.It rang…and rang…and rang….

_Pick up, please pick up, _he thought.But there was no answer.After eight rings, he pressed the call end button and punched in Izzy's phone number.Once again, the phone rang and once again, there was no answer.

Desperately, Joe punched in every one of his friend's telephone numbers, but every time there was no answer.Except for in the case of TK's house.But, much to Joe's dismay, Mrs. Takaishi told him that TK was visiting Matt and his father and would not be home until the next day.And Joe had already called Matt's house.

He angrily clicked the cell phone off and sighed._Something was wrong.What were the chances of all of them being out of town on the same day?_He knew that was a slim to none possibility.

And that was when Joe heard somebody breathing right behind him….

_ _

_ _

~*~

"So let me get this straight: we're all some experiment for Malign?" Matt inquired of Rea once she had finished her explanation.

Rea nodded and replied: "he's been obsessed with the idea of humans being able to enter this realm and stay here.Permanently.Quite personally, I never expected him to be able to do it, but apparently, he's done it."

"But _why would he want to bring us here?What's his purpose?" Izzy asked, still not entirely understanding __why they had been forced into the convergent dream._

"Well, I'm not totally sure if this is the truth, but there's been a rumor circulating that he wants to build his own empire.Apparently, he wants to transport everybody from Earth here, where his power is pretty much what controls this world."

"What?What do you mean his power controls this world?" Sora questioned.Rea hadn't said anything about Malign controlling the world.

"He can pretty much make this world do whatever he wants.Kari getting dragged into the ocean was no coincidence.Neither was the change from the ship you were all on to this building.Everybody here has abilities like that—"

"Even you?" TK broke in.

"Yes, even me.But Malign is far more powerful than I am.My control over this world is limited.Very limited.But his…I can't even begin to describe it."

"But how can we get out of here?" Mimi demanded, not caring at all why they had been brought to this new world.

"The only way you can get out is to wake up.And unfortunately, Malign has complete control over your abilities to wake up."

"You have got to be kidding me," Izzy muttered.

"What?" Rea queried.

"So we have to beat Malign to get out?" 

"That is correct.Unless somebody can wake you up, which I strongly doubt."

Mimi's eyes lit up and she cried out: "Joe could wake us up!"

"Assuming he's awake and assuming he has reason to see us," Matt added.

Rea shook her head and replied: "I don't think that's going to work all that well.Trust me, it takes a lot to wake somebody from a convergent dream.Then again, he could just as well wake you all up."

An unfamiliar voice cut through the room: "that's all well and good, but none of you will be going home any time soon."

Kari saw Rea's eyes harden for a moment and whispered: "what's wrong?"

"Nothing," Rea gruffly replied."All of you get back against the wall."

"But—" TK protested.

"Now!" Rea hissed.

The six children backed against the far wall and Rea shouted: "come out, Vitriol.I know you're hiding."

"Oh, but it's so much more _interesting this way," came the voice.Rea suddenly screamed and brought her hand up to her face just under her eye.When she removed her hand, it had blood on it.Vitriol's voice came again: "don't you agree?"_

"Make this a fair fight," Rea growled.

The outline of a young woman with curly dark hair and fair skin shimmered into existence directly in front of Rea.From her vantage point at the back wall, Kari noticed that Vitriol's eyes were familiar.Something about them…the intensity, the depth, and the _sapphire blue…it was very familiar.She'd seen it before in…Rea's eyes._

She watched as the outline became solid and the fight began.It was intense, both side lunging for the other with lightning-fast movements and both glaring at the other with those intense blue eyes….

Vitriol suddenly surprised Rea and knocked her flat on her back before pinning her to the ground.She drew back her fist and Rea flinched as a nasty punch was delivered to her left eye.

Vitriol beat on Rea for a good five minutes before Rea gasped: "stop…p-please.Vitriol…st-stop."

To everyone's amazement, Vitriol did stop hitting Rea.Kari wasn't completely sure, but she thought she'd seen a brief flicker of guilt in Vitriol's eyes.But if there had been any doubt in her mind before, it was covered by the ferocious glare that replaced it.

"It doesn't matter.Either way, we win," Vitriol sneered.

"W-what…do you…m-mean," Rea stuttered, still in pain and still breathing heavily.

"I'm sure those nasty little snots back there" (she motioned to the group of children) "told you about their missing friend.Malign figured out how to send people from here to their world and Nocuous is after him.He'll be dead very soon."

Rea's face paled and she whispered: "N-nocuous?"

"That's right," Vitriol replied."Oh, and about the other one, the one that's still lost here…we have him.If you want him to remain alive, I advise you don't upset Lord Malign, as he is already in a fragile condition."She punched Rea again, hard in her already tender left eye before getting to her feet and delivering a harsh kick to the stomach.Then she shimmered and disappeared.

The moment Vitriol vanished from sight, the six children ran to Rea's side, concerned for their newfound friend.

"I'll be fine," Rea muttered, sitting up slowly and rubbing her left eye tenderly.She winced, but knew that it would heal.

Kari was trying very hard not to cry.She had heard what Vitriol announced and knew only one thing: her brother was in danger.And he was hurt.She was very worried for him and she choked back the tears that were welling in her eyes….

~*~

Mrs. Kamiya hadn't moved from her spot between her two children in the hospital.She was too spent to move and she refused to eat.She insisted she wanted to be the first person they saw when they woke up…_if they ever wake up, she bitterly thought, looking first from her very pale son to her daughter, who was still breathing with the help of the tube._

Something about Kari caught Mrs. Kamiya's attention and she saw something glimmering on her daughter's cheek.

Quickly, she rose from her seat and went to her daughter's side._It was a tear.Tears were flooding from behind Kari's closed eyes._

"Kari, I'm here," Mrs. Kamiya whispered, taking her daughter's hand."I'm right here, baby, I'm right here."

Tears dropped from Mrs. Kamiya's eyes, mingling with the ones trickling down her daughter's cheeks….


	8. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

Within Dreams—Chapter 8

Vitriol stormed through the corridors of Malign's web-like system of passages.She was in a passageway she knew particularly well; the one that led to the dungeons.The dungeon usually didn't have any occupants and it was a favorite place of refuge for Vitriol from Malign's wrath, or just for being alone in.But the rare times it did hold somebody prisoner were times she used to vent anger.Intense anger.

It was an anger she kept bottled up inside, an anger that multiplied every day.It was and anger that was fed by life itself and thrived on strong emotions.And it was an anger she had to get rid of.Some of it had been released by her fight with Rea, but then again, the fight also served to intensify what remained until it was like a pressure inside her, making her feel as though she would explode at any second.

Few indeed were her chances of being able to release the anger.She could not harm Malign or any of his servants—the people she saw every day.But she could easily harm a prisoner.

Vitriol pulled open the heavy door of the dungeon and her lips twitched to form just the slightest smile. Soon all the pent-up emotions would be out of her system and she would feel as though she could live once again.Yes, soon it would be over.

Slowly and purposely, she approached the prisoner, a young boy.In the back of her mind, a tiny voice was wailing: _"don't do this!He's defenseless as he is!"_But that voice was silenced by the intensity of her raw emotions.

She stood by the boy's side.He was lying on his back on the hard, cold floor of the dungeon, trembling and every now and then moaning.His back had deep slashes across it and his dark brown hair was matted against his head.Vitriol knew he'd been poisoned, that he was weak and vulnerable.But that anger didn't have compassion.That anger was what controlled her.And what destroyed her, made her a slave to Malign.

_Should I wake him for this? _She wondered, pondering whether it made a difference.The malicious voice of the uncontrollable rage shrieked: _"yes!Wake him!It is no fun to not enjoy the screams of your victim!"_

_ _

With a flick of her hand, Vitriol woke the boy, but only enough for him to be able to see what was happening.The poison taxed him of his strength and energy, making it impossible for him to move away.

He looked up at Vitriol, and she felt her heart wrench.His eyes were full of so many emotions: fear, pain, pleading, worry…all were present in this young boy's eyes.For one brief moment, the small voice was screaming: _"you can't do it!You can't do this to him!"But then that rage, that irresistible, driving rage was back._

She began forming a small ball of bright yellow energy in her hand when the boy whispered: "Kari…where…?"

Again, Vitriol felt her heart wrench.He was in pain and imprisoned with the enemies and yet he was worried for somebody other than himself._You don't **want** to do this.You **have** to, _she reminded herself.With that, she flung the ball of energy at the boy.

It flew through the room and smashed into him, exploding on contact and sending him hurtling across the room and into the stone wall.Vitriol felt a sense of pleasure at seeing him suffer, feeling the anger dissipating from her system.It was like a weight had been resting on her head and now it was removed.But there was still more anger left.

The boy moaned miserably, too weak to do anything else.Again, the hot anger flashed through Vitriol, driving her to levitate a long whip across the room to her side.She took her time examining it, taking in just how long it was and running her hands over the glass that was attached to the end of it.

She flicked her wrist and smiled as the whip snapped, the glass deeply cutting the boy across his face.She whipped again, pulling the glass across his chest and savoring the choked screams with the deepest sense of delight.

Eventually, she tired of using the whip and tossed it aside.The boy was gasping for breath and he demanded a third time: "Kari…?"

And now Vitriol knew the perfect way to destroy him emotionally.It was so simple.So delightfully simple."No.Kari's not safe.She is dead," she smugly stated.She watched as the boy's eyes grew watery and dull.

"No…Kari…" he whispered before he was once again unconscious….

~*~

Mrs. Kamiya was still holding Kari's hand when she heard Tai shout: "No!Kari!"

She turned to see her son, now thrashing wildly in the bed, chest heaving with uncontrollable sobs.But what scared her the most was the blood.Red blood stained the sheets of his white hospital bed.

_What is going **on**? _She wondered.She was at a loss of what to do.She was beyond panic.Mrs. Kamiya was now just scared.Scared for the fate of her children.It was a fear that parents wish they never have to face and here she was, not only facing it, but being flung into it.

She felt worse than bad or miserable.There was no word to describe her deep grief.She sat down, too shocked at what was happening even to ring for help.

_Come back to me, my angels, my babies.Please, come back, _Mrs. Kamiya silently pleaded….

~*~

Joe stiffened at the sound of breathing behind him.Very slowly, he turned…only to face the huge man that had jumped from his window.The man was smiling maniacally and Joe saw the knife, glinting in the early morning sunlight for an instant and comprehended what was happening all in the time it takes to blink an eye.

He moved away from the man, just as the knife plunged downward, grazing his shoulder and drawing blood.Luckily, he had moved out of the way before he'd been stabbed through the head.

"I _will _kill you!" the man roared as he leaped at Joe.

Joe backed away, but was met only with the edge of the roof.There was nowhere to go_…_.Except….

The man was surprised when Joe suddenly bolted forward, directly into him.The man grunted and was knocked off his feet and Joe ran past him, toward the door that led to the inside of the building from the roof.

_Please be unlocked, please be unlocked…_Joe silently pleaded.It was locked.The man was back on his feet again now and Joe desperately pounded on the door, hoping against hope that somebody would hear him and let him in.

The man came from behind and snagged hold of Joe by his hair, forcing him away from the door.Joe winced as the man raised the knife…and then dropped his arm to his side, a faint smile playing on his face.

"Didn't believe me, did you boy?" he rasped, waving the knife under Joe's nose."Didn't believe me…too bad.You know…I might give you another chance.You'd like another chance, wouldn't you?"

Joe vigorously nodded as he felt the knife press against his neck.

"You'll believe me this time, won't you?"

Again, Joe nodded.

"What was that?Couldn't hear you," the man chuckled.

Joe cried out in surprise and pain as he felt the blade cut into his left cheek.

"You want another chance, don't you?"

"Yes," Joe whispered, his throat like sandpaper.

"Louder!"The man made another slit on Joe's cheek.

"Yes!Yes!" Joe cried, as he felt the blood dripping down his face.

"You'll believe me now, won't you?"

Joe felt the blade on his other cheek and screamed: "yes!"He relaxed as the blade was withdrawn from his face.

"Fine.One more chance.But if you don't take me seriously, you'll get something more serious than a bleeding cheek."

With those final words, the man turned and leaped from the top of the building, leaving Joe to fall in a trembling heap where he had been standing.


	9. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

Within Dreams—Chapter 9 

Rea gingerly traced her fingers over her swollen left eye.The resulting pain made her wince and she dropped her hand down to her lap.Here she was, hours after the fight with Vitriol and her eye was still throbbing with pain and so swollen she was unable to open it.

She looked at the six children, all stretched on the floor of the room sleeping._Poor kids, _she thought._They shouldn't be dragged into this.It's not fair._It made her feel terrible, knowing that every moment these children were in this world they were in danger and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

_They look so different when they're asleep, she thought.__They look so innocent…and vulnerable.She swept her eyes across the room, looking at each of the children in turn, taking in how peaceful and tranquil they looked—all except for Kari.The young girl's eyes were open and she was staring up at the ceiling, lying unmoving on the ground._

"Kari?" Rea whispered, tiptoeing across the room to where the girl was laying.

Kari sat up on her elbows and looked at Rea.It was apparent to Rea that Kari was tired, as the girl's eyelids were drooping, but she also appeared to be quite alert.

"Yes?" Kari answered.

"What's wrong?"

Kari hesitated, wondering if it would be better to leave the question that had been on her lips all night unasked, but quickly decided to get it over with: "back when you and Vitriol were fighting…how did you know her?"

"I don't," Rea quickly replied.Too quickly.

"But you did know her.I remember it.You knew her name, first thing.How?"

Rea gritted her teeth.Kari had a point and there was no way of denying it.The best reply Rea was willing to offer was silence.

Kari waited for an answer, but received none.So she continued: "I know this is going to sound stupid, but there was something…something in her eyes that I've seen in yours.I can't understand it, but I saw it there in her eyes."

** **

****"It was nothing," Rea harshly answered."You were mistaken."

"No.I don't think so," Kari firmly replied."I know that look.I've seen it in Matt and TK's eyes.And in my and Tai's eyes."

Rea was getting uncomfortable.She did not want her secret to get out.She did not want them to know that her own sister was fighting against them.She didn't want to face the fact herself.And yet Kari was figuring it out as she watched.

"Rea…are you and Vitriol…sisters?"

"No.Vitriol is not my sister," Rea answered.It was true, partially.Her real name wasn't Vitriol.It was actually Nema.But Nema was dead.Oh, maybe it wasn't physical.But Nema was not existent anymore.In her place was Vitriol.

"Are you sure?"

Rea nodded and answered: "Nema is my sister."She paused, then corrected herself: _"was my sister."_

"Was?" Kari loudly repeated."Was?" she once again repeated, whispering once again.

"Yes.Was.She's gone and she's not coming back."

Kari's face fell and she gently inquired: "w-what happened to her?"

"I'd…rather not talk about it right now," Rea haltingly answered.There was a long silence before she broke it with: "Kari?What's it like to sleep?"

"What do you mean?You've never gone to sleep before?"

"Yeah.What's it like?"

Kari smiled slightly and said: "I can't really explain it.It's something you have to experience yourself."She yawned."I'm tired right now," she added.

"Then go to sleep."

Rea backed away from Kari as the girl lay back down on the floor and closed her eyes.She was sleeping in under a minute.

_I wish I could sleep, _Rea thought, looking once again at the children in front of her._I wish I could sleep…._

_ _

_ _

~*~

Joe hadn't dared to move from the rooftop since his encounter with Nocuous.His left cheek had two red slits on it, from the slashes he received from the knife.And there was no way he was going to be able to sleep.He was too shaken up and too afraid.

He'd laid on that rooftop, staring up at the sky, watching as it first lightened, then darkened to a deep navy blue, then a black.He'd watched as the sun had traveled across the sky.He'd watched as the stars came out.But he hadn't moved from that rooftop.

_My family must be worried sick, _he realized, only now thinking of it._I should go back._But something inside of him was making it impossible to return back to his family's apartment.

He remembered for the first time since Nocuous confronted him about the cell phone calls he had made.The cell phone calls that went unanswered.

_Something's wrong.I've got to find my friends.It's unlikely they'd all be out of town at the same time.Something is wrong._

Finally, Joe was able to get to his feet.He moved quietly, afraid that Nocuous would appear out of nowhere if he made a noise.He climbed down the fire escape, pausing by his window to look inside.He realized that this could well be the last time he ever saw that room.At this revelation, he felt like going inside and talking with his family.But he couldn't.They would not allow him to leave again and he had to leave.

He shook his head and quickly climbed the rest of the way down.Then he ran toward his friend's homes.

~*~

Mrs. Kamiya had not eaten in twenty-four hours.She was no longer allowed to stay in the same room as her children after what had happened to Tai.

She remembered how after what seemed like an eternity a nurse had entered the room and been shocked at theblood on Tai's sheets.And then she'd been ushered out of the room, although she fought against it.

_They think I did it, _she miserably thought._They think I hurt Taichi.I'm his mother.And they think I hurt him.Their own mother not allowed to see them._

_ _

It hurt.It hurt bad.


	10. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

Within Dreams—Chapter 10

Vitriol had not left the dungeon since she had released her anger.She felt…guilt.Extreme guilt.The guilt was a hundred times worse than the anger had been.And it _scared _her.She had never felt guilty about venting her anger before and suddenly here she was, eyes stinging with tears at doing just that.

She couldn't bear to look at the boy's battered, unconscious body lying a few yards away.Every time she saw the blood that she had caused to flow gathered around in him in a pool it made her feel sick.And she had _enjoyed _making that blood flow.She had _enjoyed _the feeling of the anger leaving her and she had _enjoyed _the cries of pain that had issued forth from the boy's mouth.But most of all, she had _enjoyed _the look of utter and total defeat that had been in the boy's eyes before he went unconscious.

Now these recollections sickened her beyond belief.The fact that she had enjoyed doing these cruel things made her feel terrible.And she couldn't understand why.Why had she stopped before finishing him?Why did she feel so wrong about hurting this child?

The questions were pulling at her mind, pounding in her skull and giving her a headache.The headache was so intense it was impeding the ability for her eyes to see.And through the haze, and the pain, a memory returned to her…a memory from long ago…before she became Vitriol…before she joined sides with Malign…back when she was still Nema.In that memory, she was happy._Happiness…_it was something she hadn't felt since that day so long ago.It was something she missed immensely.

The memories were coming to her more clearly now, and faster.Back to when she was so young she had never heard of Malign, then further still to a memory of her and Rea playing when they were no more than three years old.

And then these memories disappeared and she was suddenly re-experiencing the day she'd joined Malign.How excited she'd been.How she'd thrown away her real name and adopted Vitriol as her name.She still remembered why she'd chosen Vitriol.It was because it meant something resembling acid.And that was how her soul felt.Like acid.

It was that day that the anger inside her began to build.It built every day until she no longer cared what happened to others.All that mattered was getting rid of that anger.It came to a point where the anger became unbearable.That was the first day she vented that anger.But she did it the wrong way.She attacked Malign.That ended in pain, which brought the anger back to her, worse than ever.

And finally she resolved the problem: attack the prisoners.Malign wouldn't mind that.In fact, he encouraged it.That was how things went on…until Malign succeeded in bringing these children here, to their world.Until she attacked this human child she had never felt remorse.And now she had.And she didn't like it.

The headache suddenly left her.She was still in the dungeon.Still sitting near the boy.And still a faithful servant to Malign.Nothing, not even her memories, could save her now.

~*~

TK opened his eyes and was surprised to see that they were no longer in the abandoned apartment building.They were now in a green, healthy forest.He also noticed that Rea was not asleep.

"Rea, how'd we get here?" he sleepily inquired.

Rea grinned and answered: "remember how I said I had a little bit of control over this world?Well, I brought us here.I thought all of you would like it a little better than that old apartment building.Besides, it's a nicer environment to talk about how we can get you all home in."

"Oh," TK yawned.It was still early.Way too early for him to be getting up.

"Go on ahead and go back to sleep," Rea said.

TK closed his eyes and was soon sleeping once again.TK hadn't been sleeping long when Rea saw Matt rub his eyes and sit up before yawning.He looked around, sighed and his eyes drooped in disappointment.

"What's wrong, Matt?" Rea inquired.

Matt looked surprised that Rea was awake, but said nothing about that and replied: "I was hoping the convergent dream was just a dream.And why aren't we back in that building anymore?"

Rea quickly delivered the same speech she'd given TK and Matt listened with interest.When Rea finished talking, he questioned: "could you take us anywhere in this world then?"

"I wish I could answer yes to that question, but I can't.Malign is more powerful than I am.He put restrictions on the already somewhat limited power I had over this world before, making me have very little control over this world indeed."

Matt was quiet for a moment, then queried: "is it possible to beat Malign?"

"In this world, anything is possible.This is both a fortunate and unfortunate thing.But yes, Malign can be beaten."

"I don't mean to be annoying with all these questions, but this is my last one," Matt began: "that other girl back at the building, the one you were battling with—is she stronger than you?"

"Who?You mean Vitriol?"Matt nodded and she said: "she wasn't always stronger than me.But that was a long time ago.Now she is stronger than me.A great deal stronger, in fact."She added a question of her own at the end of her answer: "aren't you tired?"

Matt shook his head and replied: "not really.I would think you'd be more tired than I am.Did you stay up all night?"

Rea nodded and was about to explain that it was physically impossible for her to go to sleep, but Matt said: "sorry about that.I should have kept watch for some of the time."

"Don't be.I don't sleep."She quickly explained about how was unable to sleep to Matt.When she finished her explanation, she stated: "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"I'm sorry that you guys had to be dragged into this.It's not fair."

"It's not your fault we got brought here," Matt answered.He quickly changed the subject with: "the others will probably be up soon."

Rea nodded and walked away, wishing there was something she could do that would end the threats of her world for the children that had been thrown into it.

~*~

Vitriol bit her lip and applied medication to the wounds she had inflicted to the boy.It was the only thing she could think of that would rid her of that guilt that had come to her after harming him.

The slashes on his back were worse than any of the other wounds and she had not done them._Those probably hurt, _she thought, applying the medication to those as well.She regretted she could not cure him of the poison._At least, not until he wakes up, _she thought.The medication that cured the poisoning had to be taken orally.It tasted nasty, but it did the job.

When she had finished, she looked down at the boy.He still looked bad, but at least the wounds were clean now and at least they weren't bleeding as freely as they had been.

She was still looking down at him, holding the medication when a cold voice sharply said: "and just _what _do you think you are doing?"

Vitriol stiffened.She knew that voice and that particular tone all to well.It was Malign.And he was angry.

"N-nothing," she lied.Unfortunately, she dropped the bowl that was holding the medication.It shattered, the sound echoing through the dungeon and the contents spilling onto the floor.

"It certainly doesn't look like _nothing,"_ Malign spat."You were trying to heal that boy, weren't you?"

"N-no!"

"Then why were you holding a bowl of healing solution?" he roared.

Vitriol was silent, unable to answer the question without telling Malign the truth.

"Did I _tell you that you could heal the prisoner?" _

"No—but I thought—"

"If I wanted you to _think, I would __tell you to think!You __knew I would not approve of this!"_

"That's why I didn't ask," Vitriol mumbled.

"If you want to do something, you _always ask me!You belong to me!I __own you!"_

Vitriol had had it._Nobody _owned her!_NOBODY!_"I _belong _to no one!" she spat."Would you like to know what I think of you?"

Malign smiled and said: "go ahead."

"You are an arrogant, power-hungry egotistical dictator!"As soon as the words left her mouth, Vitriol knew she'd made a terrible mistake.She didn't even have time to move before a powerful blast of energyblew her off her feet and into the far wall.

"Still think I'm all those things?" Malign demanded.

Vitriol didn't answer and she was hit with another blast of energy, and another and another….Finally she screamed: "I was wrong!I'm sorry!"

Malign stopped hitting Vitriol with the energy blasts and said: "you weren't thinking of rebelling, were you?Because you _know _what will happen if a rebellious thought enters your mind."

"No!I'd never turn against you!" Vitriol cried.

Malign smiled and said: "prove it."

"What?What do you mean?"

Vitriol was confused.She'd been through punishments before and they usually ended after Malign got tired of beating her.She'd never been asked to _prove it._

"Hit this boy with your best shot."

Now Vitriol was stuck.If she _didn't _hit the boy, she'd end up dead, but if she _did _hit the boy she'd feel awful.Finally, she sent a few small sparks onto the boy's leg, hoping that the small attack would satisfy her master.

"That was not your best.Now hit this boy with your best before I hit him with mine!And he most certainly won't survive that."

Vitriol bit her lip and formed a large fireball that rained hundreds of the sparks she had previously thrown on the boy.She hesitated, and then threw it at the boy.Then she closed her eyes.She turned away from that scene, refusing to watch.

"Very good," Malign crowed after a few seconds."You may go.And Vitriol?While we're on such good terms…you can sweep every inch of this castle until every speck of dirt is gone._And _you can polish every single skull and bone in my chamber."

Vitriol sighed and began to leave, but Malign stopped her and said: "oh, and Vitriol, don't let me down again.I saw you sparing Rea.If that happens again I'll kill you.And then I'll kill her and all those children I brought into this world as well."


	11. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

Within Dreams—Chapter 11

Joe ran as fast as his legs could carry him toward the building that the Ishida's lived in.Not only was he worried for his friends, he was afraid that Nocuous would figure out he wasn't asleep and come after him again.And this time he knew there would be no way to escape.

Every corner he passed he half expected the huge, muscular man to jump out of the shadows and into his path, holding the knife poised and ready to attack.There were a few people out on the streets and they were all giving him funny looks as he raced past them, but Joe didn't care much about what the people thought of him.He was more worried about reaching the apartment building safely.

After what seemed like an eternity of running, the huge, looming building was in his sight.His legs burned and his lungs were screaming for a good breath of air, but he didn't dare stop running in case Nocuous found him.He was terrified that he would be able to start running again if he stopped, that the urge to stay still and regain his breath would be too strong for him to resist.

Finally, he was inside the building.He ran across the lobby and punched the up button on the elevator then leaned against the wall for support.After a couple of seconds, the elevator doors opened with the usual quiet dinging sound.

Joe stepped into the elevator, pushed the button for the eighth floor and collapsed on the floor.His legs felt like rubber and sweat was running down his back and face freely.The cuts on his cheek stung and he carefully touched one of them.His hand came away splotched with blood.The heat of the apartment building plus the amount of physical exertion he'd gone through had caused the wounds to open up again.He noticed with some uneasiness that blood was dripping onto the floor of the elevator and put his hand back up, under the cuts to catch any more blood before it could stain the carpet.

The elevator ride ended far too soon for Joe.He wished it could go on forever so he could catch his breath and regain feeling in his aching legs.It took every bit of his willpower to force himself to get back up to his feet and stumble out of the elevator and into the hallway.

_Which one does Matt live in?_ Joe wondered._It's 174H or J or something like that.__All I know is that it's on the eighth floor._

Luckily, all the doors were labeled with an H on that floor, making it easy for him to find the correct door.

_Please be home, he thought, knocking on the door then leaning against it as he took deep breaths to calm his frazzled nerves.There was no answer.__I am going to get in there whether it's the last thing I do, he decided._

But unfortunately, there appeared to be no key to the room just lying around and he certainly wasn't about to try and break down the door.That was when he got an idea.It was crazy, a one-in-a-million chance, _but it could work, _he reminded himself.

Quickly, he got back on the elevator and returned to the lobby.He took a deep breath, hoping he didn't look as bad as he felt and walked to the front desk.A teenager who looked to be little older than eighteen was sitting at the registration desk, reading a romance novel and snapping her gum like kindling in a fire.

"Um…excuse me?" Joe uncertainly inquired.The girl did not look up from the book and Joe said a little louder: "miss?Excuse me?"Still the girl did not look up from her book.Now Joe was beginning to get just the teensiest bit annoyed."Hello?" he shouted.

The girl jumped and dropped the book then looked at Joe in disgust."Yeah?Whaddaya want?" she demanded, eyes narrowed.

"I am Yamato Ishida's cousin and I'm going to be spending the weekend with him and Mr. Ishida, but they're not home right now.Would you please be so kind as to lend me a key to their apartment?"

The girl looked at him, eyes very narrow, but said: "which apartment?"

"174-H."

She turned away from him and to a rack of keys hanging on the wall behind her, muttering "174-H…174-H…."After a couple of minutes of searching, she found it and handed the key to Joe.

"Thanks," he said, but the girl was already absorbed in the book again.

_I never thought they would be that liberal in handing out apartment keys, _Joe thought as he rode the elevator back up to the eighth floor.Once again, he was back up on the eighth floor and he raced to the Ishida's apartment door before opening it with the key.

It was dark in the apartment.That was the first thing Joe noticed.It was very dark and it made him uncomfortable.He flicked on a light switch and blinked as the room was bathed in light.It was then that he realized just how cold it was in the room.He shivered and glanced at the thermostat.His eyes widened in disbelief._34 degrees?How did it get so cold in here?_ He wondered.

His musings were cut short when he caught sight of Matt and TK, both lying with closed eyes on the couch and covered with several blankets.His first reaction was to think them dead, but that wasn't right.They were still breathing.

Joe took the blankets off of the two brothers and noted there didn't appear to be any blood, meaning they most likely weren't injured in any way.He noticed that TK shivered slightly when he took the blankets off, but his eyes did not open.In all actuality, they both appeared to be sleeping.

"Hey, wake up," he half-whispered, feeling just the slightest bit foolish.Neither Matt nor TK opened their eyes."Wake up!" he shouted, giving first Matt then TK a shake that would wake anybody.But neither woke up.Now Joe was getting worried."Come on, wake up!" he shouted, a little louder than before.And still neither of them woke up.

_This doesn't make any sense, _he thought._They both appear to be sleeping normally but they won't wake up.If somebody is sleeping normally they should be able to be woken up.Something must be wrong._

He had no idea what to do now except telephone the hospital.Quickly, he picked up the telephone and dialed 911.After explaining the current situation to the operator, and giving the address, he was assured an ambulance would be sent to the Ishida apartment.

After making the telephone call, Joe ran to the bathroom to examine the cuts on his cheek.They still stung and he wanted to check them out.When he looked into the mirror, he saw that the entire left side of his face was covered with blood.The cuts were still bleeding a little and he turned the water faucet on before splashing some warm water onto the cuts.The water made the cuts sting even worse, but when he was finished his face was clean again, except for the deep slashes.

Then he heard the sound of somebody running down the hallway and entering the apartment.Assuming it was the paramedics, he walked out of the bathroom to meet them—and stopped dead in his tracks.No paramedics met his eyes—but Nocuous had entered the room.

He looked at Nocuous and Nocuous looked at him.Then Nocuous ran down the hall after him.Joe ducked back into the bathroom and locked the door.The moment the door was locked, Nocuous began pounding on it, kicking it and barreling into it as though to break it down.Joe sat down on the linoleum floor and shivered, fearful that Nocuous would succeed.

And then, quite abruptly, the attack on the door ended.Tentatively, Joe opened the door and poked his head out.He noticed with a sense of relief that the paramedics had arrived.One of them looked up and saw him.

"Are you the kid that made the call?" the paramedic questioned.

"Yeah," Joe answered, walking out into the room.

The paramedic looked at him, taking in the deep slash marks on his cheek and said: "hey, Barry, we're taking this one, too."

Joe was horrified at the idea.He couldn't go to the _hospital!_He had to make sure his other friends were all right.He was just about to protest when he saw Nocuous out of the corner of his eye, hiding underneath the sofa and allowed himself to be ushered out the door.

As he stepped out into the hall, he turned back to look at Nocuous once more.He smiled smugly and Nocuous mouthed: _"__next time" and drew one finger across his throat._

~*~

Rea had run about a half-mile away from the children.She didn't want them around when she did what she was about to do.She figured it couldn't hurt to speak with Vitriol, but she didn't want any of them knowing that Vitriol was also Nema, her sister.And she didn't want them to watch her perform the procedure to call her sister to her.She was afraid it would frighten them.

She took a tiny gold thimble and a long, sharp gold needle out of her pocket._As long as we're still blood sisters this has to work, she thought.__This is going to hurt…._

She pricked her right thumb_ with the needle and muttered an incantation as her blood dripped into the needle.Leaves that were lying on the ground whipped up into a mini-hurricane and she replaced the needle to her pocket.Then she poured the blood in the thimble into the shape of a circle.The instant the blood hit the ground, it fanned out and created a second interlocking circle of blood.Rea smiled.__It was working.She quickly recited the rest of the incantation and the whirlwind grew stronger.The two rings of blood glowed brightly and Vitriol appeared in the clearing._

"Why did you bother calling me?" Vitriol demanded.She noticed she was still holding the broom she'd been using to sweep out Malign's castle and tossed it away.

"We have to talk."

"Why?What's the point in talk?Talk is cheap."

"Vitriol, why are you staying with Malign?You're going to end up getting yourself killed.You know how he is.I'm surprised he let you live when you spared me."

"Yeah?Well get over it.The next time we meet you won't be so lucky.Now if you'll excuse me, I really should be going."

Rea couldn't believe her sister was leaving already."Nema, wait!" she shouted, then covered her mouth.She hadn't meant to say Nema.The name had just slipped out before she could help herself.

Vitriol froze and slowly turned to face Rea."What did you call me?" she icily demanded.

"I called you by your real name, Nema."

"My name is not Nema anymore.It's Vitriol.You know that."

"No matter how much you deny it, Nema is who you are."

Vitriol was beginning to get angry.She hated being called by her old name, the name that represented her weaker self.

"Look, Rea.I used to be Nema.But that was a long time ago.I'm Vitriol now and that's who I'll always be.We're on different sides of this war and I am a faithful servant to Malign.Not to the past, like you."She turned and began to storm away.

"Then my sister truly is dead," Rea whispered.

Vitriol paused, then vanished, eyes hard as ever, anger returning to her to once again make her a slave to Malign.

~*~

Mrs. Kamiya glared murder at the doctor that stood before her.

"And _how did you allow this to happen?" she viscously demanded of the tall, wiry man._

"Mrs. Kamiya, I assure you there is no possible way anybody could have broken into your children's room."

"Then how in the hell did Taichi get _burned?" she shrieked.In the past 24 hours she'd been told her children were in critical condition, she'd been forced to wait outside their room instead of inside, with them and now she was being informed that her son had been very seriously burned, that he was now in the ICU and she could not go see him._

"Please understand—"  
  


"Understand _what?_That this hospital knows absolutely _nothing?"_She pushed past the doctor.

"Ma'am, where are you going?" the doctor called after her.

"To see my son."

"No, I've already told you that you cannot visit either of your children at this point in time.Ma'am, come back here!"

Mrs. Kamiya continued to walk and nearly screamed in rage when the doctor caught her by the arm.

"Please understand that anybody going to see the patients in the Intensive Care Unit could be dangerous to their health!"

"I'm going to see my son, dammit!" Mrs. Kamiya shrieked."I'm sick of waiting here and getting no news.I swear to high heavens that if you don't let me see my children I will file a lawsuit against this hospital for unjust accusation!"

"For what?"

"You _accused _me of harming my son and being a potential danger to my daughter as well!And I swear I will do it."

"Calm down, please," the doctor said."Here, sit down," he added, offering her a chair.

"I'm not sitting anywhere.Not until I see _both _of my children."

"You have to understand that allowing you into the Intensive Care Unit could bring infection to those patients.An infection is the last thing that anybody in there needs.Please understand."

"Then at least let me see my daughter.Please."

The doctor was about to protest, but noticed that Mrs. Kamiya's eyes were filled with tears.He nodded and said: "all right.Right this way, ma'am" as he led her back to Kari's room.


	12. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

Within Dreams--Chapter 12

Vitriol had returned to the dungeon soon after her chat with Rea.She was tired, worn out from all the sweeping and scrubbing she'd been doing for the past six hours and she'd had more than enough of the snide remarks from Malign's servants.Bu the time she'd finished with the entire castle she was ready to attack the next person that said a single word to her.

She didn't dare look at the boy, afraid of how badly injured he would appear.She couldn't bear the idea that she'd hurt him possibly past the point of recovery.The only sign that he was still alive was the steady sound of his breathing.He did not move or make any other noise at all.

She was remembering the conversation she'd had earlier with her sister.There was no way she would ever forget it.Especially that final line: _"then my sister truly is dead."_The separation from her sister had never been so clear, so wide that it actually sent a pain through her heart.But that was what that one little statement did.It made her eyes sting with tears she knew she could never shed.

That feeling of alone-ness made her feel like hitting something.She whipped around to the back wall of the dungeon and hit it with a barrage of fireballs followed by a couple of bursts of electricity that made the room dazzlingly bright.Then she leaned against the wall and slid down so she was sitting on the ground, suddenly tired from the release of energy.

The position she was in forced her to see what she'd done to the boy.It was apparent he was still alive, though how long he would continue to be in that state she had no idea.The burns…the already viscous slashes across his back and chest…the poison…there was only so much a person could take before their body just gave up.Surely there couldn't be much time left before the injuries caused him to bleed to death--if the poison didn't do it first.

As she was looking at the boy, Malign entered the room and said: "I see you're finally appreciating your handiwork.I must say I was quite pleased when you sent that fire flying at him."

Vitriol glared at Malign.He _knew _she cared about what was going to happen to this boy.He _knew_ she felt guilty about hurting him.And yet Malign was standing there going over every detail of what had happened.

"Why, Malign?Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why are you so dead-set on killing this boy?Is it because he's from the real world?"

Malign said nothing, but smiled.The two looked at each other quietly for quite some time until Malign breathed: "I do so love watching you squirm.And it's not often I get the chance to see you so worried.Perhaps I'll draw it out just a little longer…."

"Just leave him alone.He's going to die anyway."

"Not necessarily.Certain…arrangements can be made.That is…if you cooperate."

Now Vitriol was interested in what her master had to say.She knew he was capable of healing the boy completely.No poison.No cuts.No burns.No injuries whatsoever.

"What do I have to do?"

"My, my…so eager for order now, aren't we?"

Vitriol just remained silent, trying her best to ignore the chiding remark.It was no easy feat for her, as her pride was what usually guided her.

"Well, I can see that you are ready to obey.And since you did _such _a good job on polishing all the skulls I think you deserve a break.So I'll make you a little deal.Kill Rea and the boy lives."

Now there was nothing Vitriol could do to save herself from extreme emotional pain.Either choice led to death for somebody.And Malign had earlier stated he would kill Rea himself if she didn't get the job done next time.She would die either way…right?

"Hurry up and decide, Vitriol.I believe time is running out for this boy.He is going to die very soon and if you don't make your decision I'll simply kill them both."

"I--I--"

"Yes?"

"I don't know!" she cried out.The weighty decision was practically splitting her in two.

Malign shook his head and said: "wrong answer, Vitriol."He paused, then smiled and said: "you know, on second thought, don't worry about killing Rea.I've already decided what the fate of both the boy and her will be.I think you will be quite happy with both."

"What?" Vitriol demanded, wondering what trick Malign had up his sleeve this time.

"Rea won't be killed…yet.And I'll heal the boy._But _you are to train him to be my slave.Understood?"

Vitriol nodded.It wasn't the best outcome, but at least now the boy would be safe.At least, for a while anyway.

~*~

Joe walked down the hallway of the hospital, realizing just how tired he was.It was only 9:30, but he had not had any sleep at all for the past 48 hours what with staying up the whole night yesterday.

He traced his finger across the stitches that were in his left cheek over the slashes Nocuous had given him with the knife tenderly, and then winced.They still stung a little.

_Well, it won't be long before I'm home now, _he thought.After the stitches had been administered, one of the doctors had asked him his home phone number.It wasn't until after he'd given out the correct phone number that he realized he'd destroyed his chances at checking on his other friends.Now his parents were on their way to the hospital and there was no way they'd let him leave their apartment after he'd just disappeared.

As he was walking by the rooms on his way to the elevator, he came across a room that particularly interested him.The door was open and sitting in a chair next to the bed nearest the door was… "Mrs. Kamiya?" Joe inquired.

Mrs. Kamiya jumped and looked up at Joe.He was startled to note that her eyes were red and bloodshot, as though she'd been crying for a very long time.

"Oh, you're…Joe, right?Joe Kido?"

Joe nodded and inquired: "what are you doing here?"No sooner had the words left his mouth than he realized it was the wrong subject.Mrs. Kamiya's eyes shone with fresh tears and she whispered: "I'd…rather not talk about it."

That was when Joe noticed that Kari was lying in the bed.The tube was still down her throat and the air was still being forced into her lungs.Hundreds of questions popped up in his mind, but he refrained from asking them, knowing that asking questions would be the worst thing for Mrs. Kamiya right then.

"I've got to go," Joe suddenly said."Goodbye."

Mrs. Kamiya nodded and Joe left the room before boarding the elevator._So it wasn't just Matt and TK?Kari's hurt, too.And what about all the others?_ He wondered.

But he didn't have time to ponder these points long because the next thing he knew the elevator had stopped at the main floor.He took a deep breath and stepped out of the elevator….

~*~

"I think we should be discussing how we're going to get all of you back to the real world," Rea said upon her return.She deliberately ignored the inquisitive looks from the six children, knowing there was no way she could tell them where she had been."Anybody got any ideas on how we're going to beat Malign?"

"I thought you said we might not have to fight," Mimi answered.

"I said there was a _possibility _that you guys wouldn't have to fight.A very slight possibility and by no means a certainty."

"Well then what do you suggest we do, Rea?Is fighting Malign our only option?" Izzy demanded.

Rea shrugged and answered: "I'm only thinking in your best interests.If you all don't wake up soon, won't people be worried?Besides, I don't think there is a possibility of any of you just waking up, unfortunately.If that was going to happen it would have come about by now."

"So how do we beat him?" Matt asked."You said it was possible, but you never told me _how."_

"I wish I could give you a straight answer to that, but I don't know for sure.All I know is that it's possible."

"Are you sure we have to fight him?" Sora queried.

Rea nodded and added: "you guys want to find your other friend, don't you?There is a good possibility Vitriol was telling the truth when she said they had him captive.If that is the case it would be best if we got him out of there as soon as possible."

"Where are we supposed to go?" Kari wondered.

"Well…it's going to be one heck of a long walk.Maybe if we're really lucky I'll be able to teleport us all somewhere remotely close to his castle, but I'm not making any promises," Rea answered."I advise that we leave now.The sooner we get him away from Malign the better.If he's even still alive, Malign's probably going to be playing some mind games with him soon."

It was quickly agreed that they would set off for the castle right then and there and Rea began to concentrate to teleport the seven of them away from the clearing and hopefully closer to Malign's castle.

And as the green clearing blurred then disappeared, Kari thought: _hold on, Tai.We're coming.Just hold on…._


	13. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

(A/N: Thank you so much for 1,000 reviews!Thank you to everyone that has been nice enough to review my stuff.You guys are who keep me going.Thanks again!)

Within Dreams—Chapter 13

Joe sighed as he laid on the air mattress that was on the floor of his bedroom.He _would _be in his bed, but Nocuous had practically ripped it apart when he stabbed it, making a peaceful night's rest in that bed pretty much impossible.

He was very tired now.All the events of the day had made him extremely fatigued.He glanced at his bedside clock, squinting due to the fact that his glasses were not on and sighed.It was almost 11:30.

That was when he realized he'd left his cell phone on the roof.Part of him was insistently shouting: "go get it!Go get it!" but he was just too tired to climb up the fire escape, grab the cell phone and return to his bedroom.

_I'll get it in the morning, _he decided.He yawned widely and thought: _yeah.In the morning._

At that moment, he didn't care where Nocuous was or what he was doing.All Joe cared about was going to sleep.He closed his heavy eyelids and slept, the exhaustion becoming too much for him to resist.

~*~

Meanwhile, halfway across town, Mrs. Kamiya was wide-awake.Part of this was due to the fact that her children were still in the hospital and still in critical condition, but the majority of the reason for Mrs. Kamiya's alertness was probably due to the fact that an enormous, burly man had just jumped into her daughter's room through the window.And not only that, he was glaring at Kari murderously.

"Who the hell are you!?" Mrs. Kamiya shrieked.

The man made no reply to the question, but rudely mimicked: "who the hell are you!?" 

"Look I don't want any trouble.So either you just march right back _out _that window or I will call security," Mrs. Kamiya said, trying her best to sound at least partially calm.

"Security, security," the man repeated, voice growing louder and louder with each repetition."Like security is supposed to scare me?Don't you know who I am, woman?"

Mrs. Kamiya bristled at the way the man spat the word woman as though it was a bad taste in his mouth and answered: "what gives you the idea that I would want to know a stupid pig like you?"

"Because I" the man paused for dramatic effect "am Nocuous.And I am here to take your children."

That was when Mrs. Kamiya snapped.After all she'd been through this was the straw that broke the camel's back.She shrieked: "get the hell out of here!I don't care who you are!You're not taking my children anywhere!"

"You don't seem to understand.So I'll repeat it nice a slowly.I.Am.Nocuous."

"No, _you _don't understand.I don't care if you're a three-legged bearded lady with lobsters crawling out your ears!You are not taking my children away from me!"

Nocuous smiled and said: "you have a volatile temper, do you know that?Maybe you'll be more submissive if I bring _this _into the debate."He whipped out his knife and savored the way Mrs. Kamiya's eyes widened in fear.

"Get out of here," she whispered.

"'Fraid not.Now if you'll excuse me…" Nocuous trailed off and walked over to Kari's bedside.He raised the knife and was about to strike when the knife was knocked out of his hand.It landed on the bed only inches away from the young girl's right shoulder.Before he could react, Mrs. Kamiya had grabbed the knife.

"Now we will talk," Mrs. Kamiya evenly said as she held the knife level with the man's throat.

Nocuous stood held his arms open before saying: "OK, lady.You talk, I'll listen."

Mrs. Kamiya nodded, but did not lower the knife from Nocuous' throat."All I ask is that you get out of here and leave my family alone.That's it.Just go."

Nocuous nodded and Mrs. Kamiya took the knife away.It was a terrible mistake.Faster than she could even think to pull away Nocuous snatched the knife from her hands.

"You shoulda killed me when you had the chance," he hissed.He shoved her away, into the wall and readied himself to deliver the blow that would kill Kari.

"NOOO!" Mrs. Kamiya wailed.

And then a miracle: Nocuous disappeared, knife and all leaving the room quite empty.

~*~

Vitriol bit her lip as the boy's eyes fluttered.True to his word, Malign had healed him.Then he'd left the dungeon to allow Vitriol to "teach him the ropes" as he had put it."

She didn't want to teach the boy to be a slave.He certainly didn't look accustomed to being a slave and she imagined he would not be happy about the fact that he was indeed a slave now.She felt like running from the room, but feared to think what the consequences would be both to her and her sister if she did anything awry of what Malign instructed her.

"Whoa.What happened?" the boy muttered as he sat up.Then he looked around, noticing that he was in a room made almost entirely of stone.His eyes rested on Vitriol."Where am I?"

Vitriol smiled wryly and answered: "welcome to the place you'll call home from now on."

The boy's eyes widened in surprise and he opened his mouth to ask another question, but Vitriol continued: "Malign, my master, saved your life."_After he did his best to kill you, she secretly added.Aloud she said: "see, you were…hurt.Badly.And he saved you."_

"That was real nice of him, but I've got to go.I have to find my sister and my friends," the boy answered.

"I already told you your sister is dead!" Vitriol snapped.She knew it was a lie, but it was the only thing she could think of in reply.

The boy gasped, as though he'd touched a hot stove and been burned.

Vitriol quickly composed herself and inquired: "what's your name?"

"Huh?" the boy said, totally preoccupied with the thought of his sister dead.

"Your name, boy!What is it?"

"Oh.It's Taichi Kamiya.But you can just call me Tai," he answered, though he still sounded somewhat preoccupied."So I'm in Malign's house?"

Vitriol nodded.She was waiting for just the right moment to inform him that he was not a guest, but a slave.Of course the _right moment would never come.She decided now was as good a time as any._

"Uh…Tai?Before you get too cozy with the idea that you're a guest here, you should know something."

Tai shook his head, but Vitriol could still see the tears in his eyes."What?" he demanded.

"You're well…ah…how can I put it nicely?"She paused, but decided there _wasn't any way to put it nicely and said: "you're a slave."_

"Say what?A _what?" Tai demanded._

"You heard me.You're a slave to Malign.And I advise you listen to the instruction I'm going to give you.Trust me, you don't want to make him mad.Come to think of it…you don't want to make me mad, either…."

~*~

"Well, this is the best I could do," Rea said."It's about five miles away from Malign's castle.Just outside his first line of defenses but close enough to walk."

"Good job," Kari congratulated.

Rea shrugged and answered: "no biggie.OK, Malign's defenses are really tight, so we're going to have to be really care—"

She was cut off by a familiar voice inquired: "uh…where am I?And why aren't I in my bedroom anymore?"

The six other former Digidestined all simultaneously shouted: "JOE?!?"

"Kari?How did you get out of the hospital so fast?Matt, TK, why aren't you in the hospital anymore?"

"I'm in the hospital?" Kari inquired.

"Why would we be in the hospital?" TK inquired.

"Well, TK, you and Matt were practically in comatose and Kari, I don't know exactly what happened with you.And who're you?" he queried of Rea.

"I'm Rea," she answered."Is this the other one you were talking about, Kari?"

Kari nodded.

Matt demanded of Joe: "you mean you couldn't wake TK or me up?"

"Wake you up?No.I tried," Joe answered."So would anybody mind filling me in?"


	14. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!  
  


Within Dreams—Chapter 14

Jim Kido walked down the hallway to Joe's room slowly._Why are mom and dad so worried about Joe?He's not going to sneak out again.In fact, I'd bet anything he's still sleeping, _he thought.It made perfect sense to him, as he'd only awoken about a half hour ago.

The conversation that took place only minutes ago was still fresh in his mind.Jim especially remembered how his parents were dead-set on having Jim check on his brother.Of course they didn't say what they were thinking aloud, but Jim could easily tell their reason.They wanted to make sure Joe hadn't snuck out again._But that's not what they'd tell me, _he thought._They don't want me thinking Joe's run away again.Oh, no…we couldn't have that now, could we?_

He paused outside the door.Quiet._He's probably going to be upset about being woken up, _Jim thought.For a brief instant, he considered just going back out to the family room and telling his parents that Joe was still sleeping.He could practically see the relief flicker through his mother's eyes and see how his father would nod without looking up from his newspaper.But then he decided he might as well be 100% certain.

Very quietly, he twisted the door handle and pushed open the door.He walked inside.Everything was as it had been last night.The bed was still slashed, the air mattress still inflated and Joe was, as he had assumed still sleeping.

Jim turned to leave, then stopped.He suddenly realized just why his parents were so worried._Joe **never** sleeps this long, _he thought._He's **always** up before me! _He looked down at his brother again, but saw only the steady rise and fall of his chest.He seemed to be perfectly fine.

But something was bothering him…something…something wasn't right.But what was it?Everything looked normal….The room, quiet, clean, rather orderly.Joe was sleeping.Sleeping deeply._Too _deeply.

Now Jim was beginning to feel a little uneasy.He knelt down next to his brother and shook him gently.Joe did not wake up."Hey," he whispered, giving his brother another shake.Still nothing.

_This is weird, _he thought."Joe!" he shouted."Hey, come on!Wake up!"

Joe stirred in his sleep and mumbled something nearly inaudible.Jim barely caught it.And he wasn't sure about what he'd heard.But it had sounded like: "a…dream?"

"Joe, wake up!" Jim shouted, giving his brother a hard shake.Joe did not open his eyes.He was sleeping, all right.He was sleeping way too soundly.And now Jim was scared….

~*~

Tai sighed as he followed Vitriol out of the dungeon, the chains around his hands and feet clanking loudly with every step.It had taken Vitriol about five minutes to explain how to be a slave.Five minutes._I never knew it could take just five minutes for everything in your life to fall apart, _he thought.And that was exactly what had happened.His friends were dead.Kari?Dead.

The rules were pretty simple: don't get anyone mad at you and stay alive.Tai remembered asking Vitriol what would happen if he just refused to do what he was told.Vitriol had just smiled, answered: "care to find out?" and left it hanging at that.Having tortures left to your own imagination was far worse than being warned ahead of time.He had no desire to find out about punishments.

He was brought out of his reveries when Vitriol quite suddenly stopped and he smashed into her.Vitriol turned and calmly stated: "you know, you'll really have to learn to check your clumsiness.Malign's not nearly as lenient as I am."

"Why'd we stop?" Tai questioned.Not that he really cared.Nothing in his life mattered anymore, so why should he care about why they'd stopped?

"This will be your room," Vitriol said, opening a door in the wall of the long corridor.It was extremely small.No windows.One bare light bulb hung from the ceiling to provide light.An unbelievably tiny bed was shoved precariously into the corner and a single hard chair was sitting against the wall across from the bed.

Tai stepped inside without a word.He sat down on the bed and didn't even care when he realized it was hard as a rock.He covered his face with his hands and just sat on the bed in silence.

Once again, Vitriol felt a pang of guilt."You'll—you'll learn to like working for Malign—I mean the master.Really, you will.You won't have to wear the chains forever," she said, half to try and make the boy feel just the smallest fraction better and half to make herself feel better as well.

Tai looked up quite suddenly and said: "how—how did they—" he trailed off and his eyes gleamed with tears.

Vitriol knew what he meant and quickly made up a lie: "they all died on the ship."

Tai nodded, but didn't reply.Vitriol said: "I'll be back later.Just wait here" then closed the door, walking down the hallway.

And inside his room, Tai stretched out on his hard bed and stared up at the ceiling, trying to get used to the feeling of the chains around his ankles and wrists.

~*~

"So this is a dream where whatever happens to us in it happens in real life?" Joe repeated once the explanation had been made.

"Yeah," Matt confirmed.

"And we have to beat Malign now to wake up?"

"That is correct," Izzy answered.

Joe sat down hard and muttered: "why can't I just be a normal kid?"

"I don't mean to rush you into this, Joe, but when you showed up we were about to siege Malign's castle.I think we should do that now," Rea said.Nobody said anything, so she continued: "OK, like I was saying before, this is about five miles away from the actual castle.Close enough to walk, but just outside the first wave of defenses."

"Kind of heavy security, don't you think?" Sora interjected.

"Well, a lot of people in this world are against him, so he need strong defenses unless he wants his castle pummeled to the ground," Rea explained."Anyways, he's got really tight defenses.And they are _really _not what you'd expect.The first line is motion sensors."

"Motion sensors?" Mimi repeated.

"Motion sensors," Rea confirmed."He's got the set up in a pattern that is totally impossible to penetrate without setting one off."

"So how do we get through?" TK wondered.

"We short them out.As I already said before, my powers are rather limited, but I should be able to short out the motion sensors' circuitry.Once those are out, there will be a few lines of armed defenses, but as long as we're very quiet we should be able to get through them.Plus, if we're lucky, they'll be distracted by the motion sensor's shorting out.That's the first half.Unfortunately, I don't know about the second half, so we'll have to just figure that out as we go along.So…are we all ready?"

Matt nodded tensely, along with the other seven former Digidestined.He didn't want to fight any more than any of his friends did, but it was the only way for them to return home.He watched as Rea took a deep breath and fired one short, sharp blast of electricity behind a tree they were standing in front of.

"I got it!" Rea happily cried as smoke billowed from behind the tree.From far away, there was an electrical crackling, then more smoke billowed from behind a bush.Then it happened behind a rock, then from under the ground….

"Oh, _no," _Izzy cried.

"What?" his seven companions demanded.

"Why didn't I think of this _sooner!?Rea, the whole castle isn't on the same circuit system, is it?"_

Rea's face paled and she muttered: "you're right."

"What's wrong with that?" Mimi questioned.

Joe gasped, catching on and said: "if the whole castle is on the same system and Rea just shorted out the motion sensors…the lights in the castle will go out, too."

There was a grim silence and Matt muttered: "Houston, we have a problem…."


	15. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

Within Dreams—Chapter 15

Tai was still lying on the bed, still staring blankly at the ceiling of the room.He wasn't sleeping.He was just lying on the hard bed, totally motionless save for the steady rise and fall of his chest as he inhaled and exhaled.

He didn't wonder or care how long he'd been in the room.He didn't care about anything anymore.His friends and sister were _gone_ and they weren't coming back.And in this world, they were the only link to reality he'd had.The only people he'd known in this world.And now he would never see them again.Not in this dream or in reality ever again.

The thought sent a flood of emotions through his mind—yet they were far away.It almost felt as though his feelings were not his own, they were that foreign to him.

He was still staring at the ceiling when it happened: the faintest buzzing noise sounded.From far away, he heard the sound of glass breaking explosively with a loud popping sound accompanying it.A second later, he heard it again, louder this time.

Vaguely, he wondered what it was, but the curiosity was feeble and gave way to a sense of inevitability.Whatever it could be, it didn't matter to him.Why should it?If it was something that could hurt him, he didn't care.Pain would only speed his journey to rejoin his friends and sister anyway.He welcomed pain.If it was something to free him from slavery, he didn't give a flying flip.It wasn't like he knew this world and without any of his friends, freedom here would be a fate worse than death.He figured it would be safer and better here, in Malign's castle.

The buzzing, shattering, popping sound was close now.He heard it again, in the room right beside his.He noticed that the popping and buzzing both sounded familiar…like electricity humming.

And then the light bulb in his room buzzed loudly.The next thing he knew, the glass that contained the light shattered.The filament inside broke and rained sparks along with the broken glass down onto the hard floor.And then it was dark.Totally pitch black.Not even the faintest pinprick of light filtered into the room.

_What's going on?_ He wondered.But the indifferent part of him soon won over and he didn't care.And from far away in the castle, he heard a terrified scream of pain resonate through the halls, sending a chill to his very bones.

~*~

"Stupid, insolent fool!" 

"I'm sorry M-malign!I d-didn't know!"

Nocuous was kneeling before his master, shaking in utter and absolute terror.Malign's eyes glimmered with rage.

"Didn't know?You didn't KNOW!?That is the most pathetic excuse I have EVER heard!Didn't _know!"_

"I j-just thought that you would w-want me to!"

"Want you to what?Interfere with one of my experiments?Deliberately stray from my specific orders?I think not."

Nocuous was becoming desperate.He knew what a mistake would cost him and knew it was a price he didn't want to pay.

"B-but it seemed like a g-g-good idea!" Nocuous stammered.

"A good idea?You call going against my orders a good _idea?_The orders were simple.Any idiot could have understood them!I specifically told you to harm _only the missing boy.And then __only if he was still awake by the time you found him.Never did I say to harm one of the other children that are already sleeping!Then again, I suppose you aren't just __any idiot.You're the granddaddy of all__ idiots!"_

"You're right.I'm an idiot," Nocuous agreed, hoping agreeing would appease Malign.

Malign shook his head and said: "and you _agree with me.That is the height of stupidity.Well, you know that I can't afford to have morons like you on my side, Nocuous.And I believe you know what that means, don't you?"_

"Please, master, please not that!I'll do anything!Anything!"

"Oh, I see you _do know what it means!How delightful.Your pleas fall on deaf ears."With those words, Malign cupped his hands and formed a small ball of green light.It was profoundly beautiful and it entranced Nocuous with its beauty, even when he knew it meant his death.Then, Malign casually tossed the ball of light at Nocuous.It raced across the room and smashed into the huge, muscular man with so much force it knocked him off his feet and sent him flying across the room at a lethal speed.With a sickening crack, he hit his head against the wall and slid to the floor, eyes closed never to open again._

Malign turned to two of his servants that had been milling about and shouted: "you there!Clean up this mess!"He motioned to Nocuous' body with a disdainful flick of his wrist.

That was when the buzzing noise sounded.Even though candles provided most of the light in his chamber, Malign had a few electric lights for the sake of better lighting.The light bulbs were what were buzzing.Then all the glass on the bulbs suddenly burst apart, raining glass down from the ceiling along with sparks from the severed filament.The room was now lit only by candlelight.Malign knew something was up and he intended to figure out what it was.

~*~

"We are so dead!" Rea moaned."I'm guessing we've got about three minutes before Malign orders his troops to search everywhere.Maybe less."

"But there's got to be somewhere we can hide," Izzy reasoned.

"Where?" Joe demanded."In a tree?I'll bet anything his soldiers don't miss anything!"

Sora suggested: "Rea, can't you just teleport us away?"

"No!I would have done it already if I could!" Rea wailed."It's hard for me to do that even once a day just by myself.I'd never be able to get all of us away.No, worse, it could end up with just half of us in some other dimension."

"Half of us?" Mimi repeated."You mean like, four of us here and four of us there?"

"No._Half of us."_

Kari gulped nervously and said: "you've got to try."

"I can't do it!If I try the results are going to be catastrophic!"

TK gasped and pointed to the horizon: "look!" he cried.

His seven companions scanned the area where the sky met the earth and sighed in despair.A steady wave of soldiers was coming toward them.

"Rea, you've got to chance it," Joe stated.

"Maybe not," Matt interjected."Rea, you told me anything was possible in this world.So that means there's _got to be a way to avoid being seen!"_

Izzy nodded and said: "that is a very intriguing point, Matt.In theory, all we've got to do is discover the correct place."

"We are running out of time!" Sora argued.

"But there's got to be a safer and easier way!" Matt answered.

"Well, I don't think we're going to have the time to find it!" Joe shouted.

Izzy grinned and cried: "prodigious!I think I might have found what we're looking for!"He was looking at the tree that had camouflaged a motion sensor.Black smoke was still drifting lazily in the air from the ruined motion sensor.A narrow hole near the base of the tree showed that the tree was hollow—and that it would be the perfect hiding place.

"Quick, everyone get in!" Rea shouted.

The hole was narrow and small, but it seemed large enough to accommodate any of the former Digidestined or Rea.Kari crawled through the hole easily and TK followed her.Next came Sora and Mimi, though they had a little harder time getting through, as they were larger than TK or Kari.

"Hurry," Rea hissed.The soldiers were less than a quarter mile away.A distance that would take them a very short amount of time to travel.

Izzy crawled through the opening.Joe followed, almost getting stuck, but managing to squeeze through the opening.

"Go, Matt," Rea muttered.

Matt shook his head and answered: "you go first."

"No!Quit being silly and get in!I'll go after you.I don't want you to risk getting caught."

"You're more important than I am," Matt argued."If they lose you they won't have a guide.Now _go."_

_ _

Rea sighed and quickly squeezed through the opening.And now it was only Matt left outside.Quickly, he stuck his head through the hole, then his shoulders.He felt in front of him for the ground and was met with nothing to support himself.It surprised him and he slid, dangling haphazardly with his legs still sticking out of the hole.He kicked wildly, trying to pull back out enough to at least hold onto the edge with his hands, but in one horrible instant, he slipped and plunged into darkness….


	16. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

Within Dreams—Chapter 16

"Hey, aren't you Joe's older brother?"

Jim snapped his attention over to the woman sitting near him in the waiting room, surprise evident on his face.Before he could reply, the woman added: "it's Jim, isn't it?Jim Kido?"He nodded.

He furrowed his brow, trying to remember who the woman was.He'd seen her before, but he couldn't remember exactly where.She was one of Joe's friends parents, that much he could remember.He remembered meeting them all when Myotismon invaded Japan._It's not Mrs. Izumi or Tachikawa.And it's not TK and Matt's mom or Sora's mom….It must be Mrs. Kamiya._

_ _

"Mrs. Kamiya?What are you doing here?"

"I'd…rather not talk about it."She paused and said: "you know, I saw Joe yesterday night here.He went home with you, didn't he?"

"Yeah," Jim acknowledged."But he's back again."

Mrs. Kamiya frowned and said: "oh.I'm sorry."

They sat in silence for a moment until Jim haltingly inquired: "did Joe tell you anything about where he was all day yesterday?"

"No.Why?"

"He was missing all day.We were all getting really worried about him.Mom and Dad were about ready to call the cops.I just kinda seemed weird that he showed up at the hospital all of a sudden."

"That _is _strange…."

"Excuse me," Jim said, getting out of his chair and walking out of the waiting room.He knew he wasn't supposed to be in his brother's room.Even his _parents _weren't allowed in yet.But he just wanted to see that he was comfortable.Surely the doctors wouldn't mind that.Besides, they knew his Dad.

He was nearing Joe's room when he noticed that two people were inside, talking in hushed voices._Maybe they're talking about what's wrong with Joe, _Jim thought.He usually wasn't one to listen in on other people's conversations, but this time his curiosity got the better of him.

Cautiously, he flattened his back against the wall just outside the door, where neither of the people would be able to see him and listened.

"Wasn't this kid in here yesterday?" came one voice.

"Come to think of it, he was.See?I remember him.He got stitches on his left cheek."

"Hey, isn't this the kid that called from the Ishida's apartment?The one that got the ambulance sent for those two brothers?"

"You're right.Now he's got the same thing.It sure is strange."

Jim's eyes widened._Ishida's apartment?Brothers?I think I'm seeing a pattern here,_ he thought as he walked away from the room._Joe's friends are all getting put in the hospital…._

He decided that maybe it would be a good idea to find out more about this. 

~*~

"AHHHHHHHH!"

Matt screamed in surprise and fear.He was falling!Falling through a thick darkness, a darkness he could not see through, that prevented his being able to tell how far he was from the end of the drop.His stomach was weightless and his body powerless to stop his descent.

_Thump!_His fall stopped quite abruptly when he landed atop a large pile of what felt like leaves.Though the fall was cushioned, it still hurt when he landed hard on his shoulder.

"Matt, is that you?" came TK's voice.

"Yeah," he answered.

It was so dark he couldn't see anything at all."Where are you?" he inquired.

"We're all just at the bottom of the leaf pile," Mimi said.

Matt started to stand to get to the bottom of the pile, but he slipped and rolled down, landing hard on his already bruised shoulder.

"So now what?" Sora wondered."We can't just stay down here."

"Well, I don't see any exit signs anywhere," Joe replied."_Is _there even a way out?"

Rea suddenly cut in: "I think I know where we are!"

"Where?" all seven of the children demanded of her.

"If I'm not mistaken, we're in a tunnel that leads directly to Malign's castle."

Kari asked the question that everyone was now wondering: "why would he be silly enough to build a tunnel that led right to his castle?"

"Well, his power generator is down here.You know, the thing that keeps all his lights going?The reason for the tunnel is so he can get to it from anywhere on his grounds.There're a bunch of places to enter it."

"If his power generator is down here, isn't it possible he's down here, trying to get the lights back on?" Izzy inquired.

"Not likely.If the lights go out, that's one thing.But if all the lights break apart, that's quite another.I'm thinking he knows something's up and he knows better than to leave the castle."

"Then let's go," Matt said."This has to be the safest way there."

Rea nodded, then realized nobody would be able to see her in the dark and said: "yeah.Just stay close and keep a hand on a wall at all times and we _should _be OK."

~*~

Malign sat in his room, puzzling over what the search of his castle grounds had turned up: nothing.He knew _something was going on, and yet the full-scale search had shown nothing wrong._

He was angry, frustrated and generally not happy.It had to be the worst time for Vitriol to enter his room.

"What do you want?" he demanded as his young ally entered the room.

"Malign, sir, I was wondering…"

"Whatever it is, the answer is no."Vitriol never called Malign 'sir' unless she wanted something.

"You didn't even let me finish!"

"I don't want to hear it.I don't have time for this!We are in a _crisis!"_

Vitriol sighed and quickly blurted: "I was wondering if I could take the shackles off of the boy now!"  
  


"No."

"But—"

"No buts.Now leave me alone!I am _attempting to concentrate!"_

Vitriol sighed and thought: _I am going to get those chains off him with or without his permission before putting her hand in her pocket and touching the small brass key it hid._


	17. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

Within Dreams—Chapter 17

_B_A_NG!_Rea slammed into the wall in front of her, unable to see through the stifling darkness."Ow!" she cried, rubbing her nose tenderly.

"What is it?What's wrong?" Joe questioned.

"Nothing's wrong.I just ran into a wall."

Seven groans sounded through the tunnel simultaneously."You mean a dead end?" Kari forlornly asked.

"Not necessarily," Rea muttered, tapping on the wall in front of her.She smiled: the wall had a hollow behind it.It wasn't a wall at all; it was a door!

"Rea?Are you all right?Should we turn around?" Mimi worriedly queried.

"No, I'm OK.I think we've reached the end of the tunnel.Just a sec.Stay there."

Rea trailed her fingers across the door.After a couple of short minutes, she found what she was looking for: a handle.Triumphantly, she twisted the handle—only to find that it was locked.

"The door's locked.Should've known Malign would think of this entrance," she informed her companions.

"You can't possibly mean we have to turn around and go back just because of one dinky little locked door," Matt argued.Rea did not reply and Matt continued: "you probably don't know this, but we've been through a lot worse than this.And now, when it looks like we've finally got a hope of going home you say we have to give up because of a locked door?"

"Well…."

"He's right," Izzy agreed."There must be some way to pick the lock.Let me try."With that, he pushed his way to the door through the crowded, dark hallway and found the doorway.The handle was cold in his hand and it was rough.Carefully, he traced his fingers over the handle, taking in every feature of its bumpy surface.Then his fingers brushed something small, smooth and round._A button!_

Izzy quickly pushed the button and the doorknob yielded when he tried it.He pushed open the door and light flooded into the hallway.

"AAAGGHH!" TK cried out, clapping his hands over his eyes along with everybody else.

"You could've _warned _us, Izzy," Sora muttered, rubbing her stinging eyes."Oh well.Good job, getting it open."

Rea's eyes were the first to adjust to the sudden change in light.She took one look around their surroundings—and her face paled.The tunnel had ended in a quite unexpected place indeed: Malign's room.The door opened from the floor of his room directly in front of his throne.And sitting in the throne was Malign himself.

"Hello, young ones.Is it time for us to play?" he harshly inquired.

~*~

Vitriol slunk down the dim hallways of Malign's castle, the heavy brass key slapping against her right thigh with every step as she neared Tai's room.

She was nervous.And scared.She knew she was deliberately going against what Malign had ordered of her, but she was sick of his orders.And she had a gut instinct that Tai would be needed very soon—unchained and unconfined.

_I just hope that Malign doesn't decide to go for a walk, _she thought as she gripped the door handle in her hand tightly.With a deep breath, she pushed open the door.

Tai hadn't moved from the position he'd been in earlier.He was still lying on his back, looking up at the ceiling.He didn't even look to see who had entered his room when she came in.For a moment Vitriol almost thought he'd died, but then she noticed his chest was rising and falling evenly.He was sleeping.

"Hey, wake up," she muttered, shaking Tai awake.

"Huh?Oh, it's you."

"Could you sound any more unhappy to see me?"Tai didn't answer, so Vitriol continued: "OK, I'm going to take the chains off of you.Malign gave me permission to."She knew it was a lie, but somehow it didn't feel quite so wrong if she _said_ she'd gotten permission.

Vitriol quickly unlocked the chains from around his ankles and wrists, noticing that his skin was already a little raw.Once the chains were off, she slung them over her shoulder and returned the key to her pocket.

"Get up," she muttered, trying to pull Tai to his feet.

Tai didn't get off the bed and Vitriol repeated: "get up," this time, more insistently.But once again, he didn't comply.

"You'd better get up _right now,"_ she hissed."Your friends—"she clapped her hand over her mouth, noticing her error one second too late.

"My friends what?"

Vitriol sighed and muttered: "aren't dead.And neither is your sister."His smile practically lit the whole room, it was so bright."They're going to be needing your help."

He nodded vigorously and allowed Vitriol to lead him out of the room.As they walked down the hall, he whispered: "hey, Vitriol?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"Yeah.No…problem," she haltingly answered.

~*~

_Well, that was easier than I thought it would be, Jim pondered as he wandered the halls of the hospital less than an hour later.__They're **all** in the hospital.Something's up._

He plunked down in a chair against the wall and thought hard about everything that had happened in the past few days, according to the hospital records._If anyone ever figures out I went through the hospital's files, there's going to be hell to pay, he thought.But the information he'd gained was interesting indeed._

Out of Joe and his seven friends, six appeared to be sleeping normally.Kari was brought in and filed as nearly drowned and although the fluid was drained from her lungs, she remained unconscious, presumably in the same state as her friends.Tai was brought in and filed as poisoned.This was the case that really threw Jim off.It didn't fit, yet it did.The poison was classified as UNKNOWN, but had been treated as the venom for a coral snake would be treated.Eventually, he'd ended up in the ICU with serious burns that had mysteriously appeared.But he was increasingly recovering.And he appeared to be in the same state as his friends and sister—all appeared to be asleep.In a way, it reminded him of the time that all the people had seemed to be sleeping normally in the convention center—even when they walked, talked and opened their eyes.

_So it's not natural sleep, he thought.__But this doesn't make any sense!Something his brother had mumbled when he'd tried to wake him up suddenly popped into his mind: __"a…dream…?"_

_I'll assume for now he's having a dream.That would mean that all his friends are having a dream, too because they're all in the same state.What if they're having the same dream?_

Jim puzzled over that idea for a moment, then dismissed it, thinking it was improbable._But it fits! _He reminded himself._If they were having a convergent dream…that would make perfect sense!_

He remembered reading a book once about convergent dreams, quite some time ago.At the time he'd thought it silly, but now, passages from the book were running wildly through his mind:_"not like normal dreams….""Usually involves a group of more than two people….""Victims appear to be in a comatose state….""Physical inflictions in the dream become reality…."_

"It all makes sense," he muttered."It's ridiculous, but it all makes _sense!"_


	18. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

Within Dreams—Chapter 18

"Go back!Go!" 

"What is it, Rea?What's wrong?" Sora inquired.

"No time!JUST GO!"

The seven former Digidestined and Rea began running back the way they had come after Rea slammed the door closed.

"Izzy!" Mimi suddenly cried out in alarm.

"What's going on?" Joe nervously questioned.

"Izzy's disappeared!He was right—" then Mimi was suddenly silenced.She, too had disappeared

"M-mimi?" Joe quivered.

Rea gasped and muttered: "that son of a…keep going!"

"What's going on?Rea, do you know?" TK quivered.

"Go now!"

"Joe!" Sora shouted.

Joe had disappeared as well.The corridor was no longer cramped anymore, with the three people missing.

"We have to get out of here!NOW!" Rea insisted."Keep running no matter what happens, understand?Don't stop!"

Before anybody could take a step, Sora had disappeared.That certainly was a wake-up call.Half of the people that had entered the tunnel were no longer in the tunnel.

They ran in the darkness, trusting luck to keep them from hitting a wall.And then there was one less running with them: "we've lost Kari!" Rea exclaimed."Keep going!"

A couple of seconds later, TK wailed: "Matt!"

"Come on, TK," Rea muttered, scooping the young boy up in her arms.A thin rectangle of light was filtering into the tunnel from overhead from the place they had come in."We're almost there, TK.TK?!?"TK, too had disappeared.

Rea gazed up at the exit.She could still make it.And if she made it…maybe she would be able to help her friends.She struggled up to the top of the leaf pile; reaching for the beam of light—and then she was rushing through space and time she felt as though she was in some psychotic cartoon.Quite suddenly, she was back in Malign's sitting room.

"Oh, honestly, did you think I was going to let you get away?" Malign inquired."This is _it, Rea.The grand finale. Once you and these meddling kids are out of the way there'll be no one to stop me from taking over the world in my spare time!"_

~*~

Jim pored over the book he'd gotten from the library.It was the same one he'd read a couple of years ago, only now there was a big difference.Then he had been reading it as a joke.Now he was taking it seriously.

_There's got to be something in here about how to wake somebody up, _he thought as he scanned through the index._I remember reading about that._

Eventually, he found the category he was looking for: awakening—page 237._Only one page?I thought there was more.Oh well.I gu_ess _I'll take what I can get,_ he decided as he flipped to the correct page number._There it is…._

The page was headed in bold letters: **awakening**.Underneath, it had a few methods of waking people from convergent dreams—but most of them were bizarre beyond belief.

"Extract the juice from a thorcleat weed and pout it over the victim?" he read aloud."What in the world is a _thorcleat _weed?"_No wonder I didn't take this book seriously.There's so much crazy stuff in here it totally distorts the fact._

He skimmed down to the bottom of the page.Only one method made any sense: _"sometimes a victim must wake on their own.While death in a convergent dream is not impossible, it is rare.The chances are high that a victim will re-awaken themselves when they are ready."_

_I guess all we can do is wait, Jim thought, setting the book aside.****__Thorcleat__ weed.Whoever heard of a thorcleat weed?_

~*~

"You know, it really seems pretty anticlimactic, all of you just dying so abruptly without any valiant fighting," Malign taunted, walking around the group he had gathered in his castle slowly.

"Yeah?Well maybe you should give us a fair chance to fight," Matt answered.

"Oh, but where's the fun in that?I mean, we all know you are just going to lose.Even if you had a chance against me, I've got thousands of servants at my aid.I don't think your chances are too great."

"Why are you so dead-set on killing us?" Joe inquired."I mean we're not a bad group of kids and we never really did anything to deserve to die and—"

"Shut up," Malign hissed."I'm going to destroy you all now.Say goodnight."

With that, he began gathering a ball of energy in his hands, readying himself for the attack that would end the lives of the eight people in front of him.In fact, he was so involved in what he was doing; he failed to notice Vitriol until she'd given him a firm smack over the head with a metal baseball bat.He fell to the floor with a dull thump.

Vitriol looked down at her master, then at the bat in her hands and muttered: "did I hurt him?I hope I didn't hurt him."Then she dropped the bat

"What do you think?You hit him with a _bat," Tai said as he joined his friends._

"Tai!" Kari happily cried, hugging her brother.She was so relieved that he was OK she had tears in her eyes.

That was when Vitriol noticed Rea."Rea, it's me," she said.

Rea smiled and replied: "welcome back, Nema."

"How touching," spat Malign."It makes me _sick!_This isn't over yet.Not by a long shot."

"Nope.It's over," Nema replied.

"You can't defeat me," Malign stated.

"You're right._I _can't.But with me _and _Rea _and _these kids…I'd say we've got a pretty good chance, wouldn't you?"

"Not at all."

With those words, Malign picked up Nema by her ankles and flipped her over his shoulder so quickly it made her head spin."Looks like you're all tied up," he laughed as he snapped his fingers.Ropes appeared around Nema.

He snapped his fingers again and the ropes appeared around Rea.

"Hey!" Rea shouted, struggling against the bonds.

"Don't bother," Malign muttered.Those bonds are impossible to break apart by magic or by force.Now then," he continued, turning to face the group of former Digidestined."We will negotiate a plan."

"Negotiate this," Matt muttered, swinging at Malign with the bat.Malign ducked, caught the bat in midair and yanked it out of Matt's hands.

"As I was _saying," _Malign continued."We will negotiate.Here's the deal: a single fight between all of you and me.If you win, I surrender all my powers.But if _I win, I get to kill all of you.__Slowly.Oh, and if you don't agree, I'll just kill you now."_

"Uh…sounds fine to me," Tai quickly agreed.

"Yep, me too," Joe added.

One by one, they all agreed they'd rather fight than die.Malign snapped his fingers and a large ring appeared on the ground.

"All you have to do is push me out of the ring somehow.That's all.But if I get all of you out of the right, I win.Ready?"

The rules seemed simple enough.The eight Digidestined nodded and Malign shouted: "OK.Go!"

No sooner had the word left his mouth than he shot two beams of energy at Matt and Joe.The beams pushed them out of the ring and a wall rose up in front of them, preventing either from re-entering.

"Mimi, look out!" Izzy shouted.But he was too late and she, too was pushed out of the ring.He was also pushed out when he was distracted.

Tai made it about three steps before he was hit with the beam that sent him flying out of the ring as well.

Sora was only inches away from Malign when she was blasted out of the ring.

"This is pathetic," Malign said, looking at TK and Kari and practically laughing aloud.

"TK, Kari, split up!" Izzy shouted to them."Go now!"

Kari ran to the right and TK to the left.Malign turned and shot TK out of the ring, but wasn't fast enough to get Kari before she barreled into him with every bit of force she could muster.He stumbled, back to the line—but didn't fall out.

"Looks like you lose," he smiled as he aimed to fire the beam at Kari.At the last second, she dropped to the ground, falling against Malign.He was so surprised he fell out of the ring.

"We…won?" Joe incredulously wondered aloud.

"We won!" Tai confirmed.

Malign frowned and muttered: "I was too cocky."He snapped his fingers and Rea and Nema were untied.

"You powers?" Nema prompted.

"Yeah, I was getting to that," Malign grouched.He sighed, and then raised his hands above his head.With a blinding flash, a continuous stream of white light shot from his fingers and into the ceiling.And then, quite suddenly, it stopped.

"Now what'll we do?" Sora wondered.

"There's nothing left but for you all to wake up," Rea answered.

~*~

Jim was sitting next to his brother's bed when Joe opened his eyes and sat up.Joe yawned widely and rubbed his eyes before looking around the room.

"Oh, good.You're up," Jim said.

"You wouldn't believe the story I've got to tell you," Joe replied.

~*~  
  


Meanwhile, Mrs. Kamiya cried out in joy when Kari opened her eyes.She hugged her daughter tightly and whispered over and over again: "thank God you're all right.I was so worried."

Her happiness was stoked even more when a nurse suddenly ran into the room four minutes later and excitedly announced that Tai had opened his eyes, sat up in bed and complained that he was hungry.

  
~*~

And so finally the convergent dreams ends.The Digidestined can once again close their eyes without fear and just _sleep._

THE END

(A/N: OK…I don't think that was very good for and ending, but it was better than when I first started out.Well, I'm thinking about putting out another story—a humor.Can we say TK + way too many mysteries= TK Holmes?Last thing, then I'll shut up and let you all get on with your lives.I've started working on a real story.One that I seriously hope to get published when I finish it.That means I might not be able to put things out quite as consistent as I am now, but I AM NOT LEAVING!'Kay, I'm done rambling.)


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